Lasers Reveal 60.000 Ancient Maya Structures in Guatemala
The ancient Mayan civilization keeps remaining a mystery even after centuries of digging and further researches.
Since it was the best-kept secret of the Central American jungle, it is still hard to come across buried artifacts in the lush green forests.
But thanks to technological advances, a group of scientists have managed to map the area and identify more than 60,000 lost Mayan structures.
The technology which is a laser-based one is called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and scientists used a plane to screen 800 square miles of the forest in Guatemala.
This massive action was organized by a non-profit called PACUNAM and with the help of LiDAR, the scientists had access to what lies below the trees and discover the hidden Mayan cities and settlements.
It is speculated that the giant city could have had more than 20 million residents, a number that was previously estimated to only 1 or 2 million.
By this increase in number, the Mayan civilization would be as large as the Egyptian or the Chinese. And since this is only a first attempt at revealing what lies in the deep Guatemalan jungle, more similar cities are still yet to be discovered by this great new technology that is still not yet fully exploited.
Source: newsbreak
Jungle-Penetrating Lasers Reveal Thousands Of Ancient Mayan Structures
Jungle-Penetrating Lasers Reveal Thousands Of Ancient Mayan Structures
Hidden below Guatemala’s lush Petén rainforest lies an ancient city not touched by humans for more than 1,000 years, but in its heyday it was home to millions of Mesoamericans who built a sophisticated, sprawling empire.
Now, for the first time, a team of international archaeologists has discovered and mapped tens of thousands of ancient structures using airborne light detection and ranging technology (LiDAR) over 2,100 square kilometers (810 square miles) of the nation’s lowland.LiDAR was first applied to this area in 2009 and focused on just the immediate surroundings of individual sites…
/Lasers Reveal 60.000 Ancient Maya Structures in Guatemala /