LiDAR Technology Shows that Guiengola Was Much Larger Than Previously Thought

Guiengola is a Zapotec archaeological site located in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (wa-ha-ka).

The Guiengola site was a fortification constructed between the 1300s and 1500s, providing protection from the Aztec Empire. The Aztecs never took the fortress, which was later abandoned.

The site includes a couple of pyramids, a palace, a ball court and tombs.

Now, thanks to LiDAR technology, it’s been found that Guiengola was much larger than previously thought.

LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. It uses laser pulses fired from aircraft that bounce off the ground and back to the aircraft, revealing the relief of the ground area being studied. A previous Mexico News Report article reported how a lost Maya city was discovered using LiDAR.

Regarding Guiengola in Oxaca, here is information from Newsweek: “Pedro Guillermo Ramón Celis of McGill University in Montreal, Canada revealed the true extent of forest-covered Guiengola using a laser-based scanning technique, flying over the site in an airplane. His study has revealed that the fortified city covers a whopping 360 hectares [about 890 acres] and sported more than 1,100 structures—including temples, ball courts and different neighborhoods for the commoners and the elite—and 2.5 miles of walls. ” 

“ ‘Because the city is only between 500 and 600 years old, it is amazingly well preserved,’ Ramón Celis said in a statement. ‘You can walk there in the jungle, and you find that houses are still standing—you can see the doors, the hallways, the fences that split them from other houses.’ ” 

“According to Ramón Celis, evidence suggests that the fortified city was abandoned just before the Spanish arrived in Mexico—with its residents relocating to nearby Tehuantepec, a small city where their descendants still live.”

“By the end of the 15th century, Ramón Celis told Newsweek, the Zapotecs had managed to both gain almost total control of Oaxaca’s Pacific Coat, and had resisted the aggressive Late Postclassic expansion of the Mexicas (the Aztec Empire).” 

“ ‘This was especially remarkable following a lengthy, seven-month siege, led by Aztec emperor Ahuizotl, at Guiengola,’ he noted.” 

“ ‘After securing this region of southern Mesoamerica, the Zapotecs no longer needed to inhabit this city.’ ” 

” ‘While living in a mountainous area had its advantages, access to running water and more fertile land were likely more important for a large population, and the site of Tehuantepec had this advantage over Guiengola.’ ” 

“Guiengola, he added, is ‘like a city frozen in time, before any of the deep cultural transformations brought by the Spanish arrival had taken place.’ ” 

Ramón Celis has a family connection to the region.

” ‘My mother’s family is from the region of Tehuantepec, which is around 20 km [12 miles] from the site, and I remember them talking about it when I was a child,’ Ramón Celis explained. ‘It was one of the reasons that I chose to go into archaeology.’ ” 

It would have been hard to find it without LiDAR.

” ‘Although you could reach the site using a footpath, it was covered by a canopy of trees,’ the archaeologist explained. ‘Until very recently, there would have been no way for anyone to discover the full extent of the site without spending years on the ground walking and searching.’ ” 

” ‘We were able to do it within two hours by using remote sensing equipment and scanning from a plane.’ ” 

So now what’s the plan?

” ‘Currently, I’m planning my fourth field season, during which my team and I will cover all the approximately 1,170 structures in the LiDAR scan, which will take us a few years,’ Ramón Celis said, stressing that this work will involve further remote sensing, rather than physical excavations of the site.”