Maya “Megalopolis” revealed by laser scans below Tikal, in Guatemalan jungle.
Scans with laser technology LiDAR that digitally removes the forest canopy, revealed ancient ruins, showing that Maya city Tikal were much larger than ground-based research had suggested.
In this major breakthrough in Maya archaeology, researchers have identified the “ruins of more than 60,000 houses, palaces, elevated highways, and other human-made features” that have been hidden for centuries under the jungles of northern Guatemala.
Thomas Garrison, an Ithaca College archaeologist told National Geographic:
“The LIDAR images make it clear that this entire region was a settlement system whose scale and population density had been grossly underestimated.”
Images screen capture from Nat Geo video
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