Ancient Maya cities revealed in latest study
STORY: Location: El Mirador, Guatemala
Nearly 1,000 ancient Maya settlements
have been revealed in a new study
The discovery includes 417 cites linked by
what may be the world's first highway network
They had been hidden for millennia by the dense
jungles of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico
LiDAR technology was used to shoot
pulses of light into the dense forest
allowing researchers to peel away vegetation
and map ancient structures underneath
The findings were first published last month
in the journal 'Ancient Mesoamerica'
[Josephine Thompson, Director of Mirador Conservation Plan, FARES]
“LiDAR captured 1,700 acres of square kilometers of terrain exposing all of the built features and their interconnections with hydrologic systems, transportation networks, car ways, residential zones, agricultural zones and also how this cultural system was interconnected with the natural system.”
All of the newly-identified structures were built
centuries before the largest Maya city-states emerged
They date back to around 1,000-350 BC