GUATEMALA CITY - A new high-tech study has revealed nearly 1,000 ancient Maya settlements, including 417 previously unknown cites linked by what may be the world's first highway network and hidden for millennia by the dense jungles of northern Guatemala and southern Mexico. It is the latest discovery of roughly 3,000-year-old Maya centers and related infrastructure, according to a statement...
A handout photo. An artist rendering shows a reconstruction of what would have been ancient Maya cities nestled in the area known as the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin of northern Guatemala and southern Campeche, Mexico, after a study using LiDAR laser technology by seven foundations and organisations.
LiDAR technology uses planes to shoot pulses of light into dense forest, allowing researchers to peel away vegetation and map ancient structures below.Among the details revealed in the latest analysis are the ancient world's first-ever extensive system of stone "highways or super-highways," according to the researchers.
As part of the Cuenca Karstica Mirador-Calakmul study, which extends from northern Guatemala's Peten jungle to southern Mexico's Campeche state, researchers have also identified pyramids, ball game courts plus significant water engineering, including reservoirs, dams and irrigation canals.