Mayan Ruins
The archaeological ruin of a pyramid is seen among forest at the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Campeche July 12, 2014. One of the most important cities of Mayan civilization, Calakmul, has been named by UNESCO as Mexico's first "mixed natural and cultural" World Heritage Site. REUTERS/Bernardo Montoya

Quebec native, William Gadoury is 15 years old and absolutely fascinated by all things Mayan, which is why he set out to study the civilization’s constellations only to find himself discovering an ancient Mayan city.

Gadoury reportedly began his thorough investigation by examining 22 Mayan constellations and projecting them onto a map, which showed the existence of 117 Mayan cities. With this, the 15-year-old found that the shapes of the star formations coincided perfectly with the location of the cities, making him the first to establish this crucial correlation.

After this, Gadoury went on to find a 23rd constellation, which he found had three stars, but only two coincided with ancient ruins, so there had to be a third city to match. And indeed there was; Google satellite images confirmed there was something that could be the ruins of a lost 4,600-year-old city.

“The Mayans were extremely good builders, but they often built in places that made little practical sense — far from rivers, far from fertile areas. It seemed strange for a civilization that was so intelligent,” he told CBC News. “I knew they were good at astronomy, so I tried to make the link.”

Daniel de Lisle, Canadian Space Agency liaison officer said that the depth of Gadoury’s research is fascinating. “Linking the positions of stars to the location of a lost city along with the use of satellite images on a tiny territory to identify the remains buried under dense vegetation is quite exceptional.”

But this is not the first time Gadoury has impressed scientists across the board, in 2014 Gadoury was invited to the Canadian Space Agency for winning first place at Quebec’s provincial Expo Sciences finales. “The Canadian Space Agency had the pleasure of welcoming a very special guest at lunchtime today! William Gadoury, a 14-year old student from Académie Antoine Manseau in Joliette, won first prize at Quebec’s provincial Expo Sciences finales. He presented his project at the IGARSS Conference in Quebec City last July. Further to this event, the CSA invited him to share his discoveries with our employees.”

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