Oh to be an adventurer back in the day. Finding the source of the Nile like Speke and Burton; ‘discovering’ America even though people had been living there since time immemorial like Columbus, sailing the seas like Captain Cook. That, my friends, was adventure in its purest form.

Nowadays there aren’t really many far-flung corners of the globe that remain untouched by thrill-seeking go-getters. But, every now and again, we find something that gives hope to the little adventurer inside us all.

During a National Geographic expedition to Honduras archaeologists were pretty stoked to find what was basically an unexplored city. This from NatGeo:

Archaeologists surveyed and mapped extensive plazas, earthworks, mounds, and an earthen pyramid belonging to a culture that thrived a thousand years ago, and then vanished. The team, which returned from the site last Wednesday, also discovered a remarkable cache of stone sculptures that had lain untouched since the city was abandoned.

The city is known as the ‘White City’, and in some legends is referred to as the “City of the Monkey God’. 52 artefacts were observed protruding from the earth, with one in particular getting people pretty worked up. Chris Fisher, one of the archaeologists, speculated as to what it might be with NatGeo:

[It] might be “a were-jaguar,” possibly depicting a shaman in a transformed, spirit state. Alternatively, the artifact might be related to ritualized ball games that were a feature of pre-Columbian life in Mesoamerica.

The exact location of the site is being kept secret to prevent looters, and those in the know are calling this area ‘the most undisturbed rainforest in Central America. Let’s hope it stays that way and we can learn more about what happened here all those years ago. Go forth explorers, we will hold the fort behind the desk this side.

[source:nationalgeographic]