The Amazon is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,with some 3 million species living under its moist tropical canopy. But because of its dense vegetation and otherwise unforgiving landscape, the Amazon never played host to large ancient civilizations found elsewhere in the Americas—at least, that’s what we thought.

New research from scientists at the French National Center for Scientific Research has revealed the ruins of an ancient city in eastern Ecuador’s Upano Valley, along the foothills of the Andes. Through mapping 115 square miles with light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technology, the team found evidence of a 2,500-year-old settlement (named Sangay) that could’ve been home to a population of 10,000, or even 100,000 at one point. The crew, lead by Stéphen Rostain, published their remarkable discovery last week in the journal Science.

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“It changes the way we see Amazonian cultures,” study co-author Antoine Dorison told the BBC. “Most people picture small groups, probably naked, living in huts and clearing land—this shows ancient people lived in complicated urban societies.’

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