On this stunning island next to the International Date Line, ancient cities have emerged in a completely shocking way .

Using LiDAR , a remote sensing method that uses lasers to 3D map hidden structures, a team of authors led by Dr. Phillip Parton from the Australian National University (ANU) has found ancient cities built Built in 300 AD in Tonga.

According to the article published in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, these cities are located on Tongatapu , the main island of Tonga and also home to the capital Nukuʻalofa.

Remains of ancient cities appear on the LiDAR map – (Photo: ANU).

The island has traces of human occupation from around 900-850 BC, but it is thought that the first cities were only built around 1000 AD.

However, they were in for a shock when they were 3D mapping this beautiful Pacific island.

Not only is it seven centuries older than expected, the urban system in Tongatapu is also surprisingly complex.

It’s not just a lonely city. The ancient people here built a network of many large and small cities connected to each other by traffic routes.

“As settlements grew, they had to think of new ways to support growing populations. This type of setting – what we call low-density urbanization – creates massive economic and social change. People interact more and do different types of work,” Dr. Parton said.

What remains are only mounds of soil that were once the foundations of houses and ruins of roads and ramparts.

Still, it was enough to reveal the astonishing scale of the island, which Westerners said was still very wild at the time.

Tongatapu Island is also home to many outstanding monuments of the Oceania nation of Tonga, including the three Haʻamonga ʻa Maui rocks, ancient burial mounds and the Papae ‘o Tele’a Tomb.

Tonga is a small, beautiful and quite famous island nation because it is located near the International Date Line and is one of the first places to celebrate New Day and New Year in the world, just behind Kiribati and Chatham Island in New Zealand and along with New Zealand. time with Samoa.