Maya City Revealed With Lasers

In April, planes flying over the ancient Maya city of Caracol used laser technology to look beneath the rainforest and see the remains of the city. The equipment, called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), bounces lasers off the ground to construct 3-D maps.

The new map shows that the ancient city was much larger than previously thought. It had been impossible to see the majority of the site because of the dense rainforest covering it.

Read more about Caracol and LiDAR on National Geographic News.

Image courtesy University of Central Florida Caracol Archaeological Project

Comments

futurecatlady
May 22, 2010, 5:14 pm

wow. why am i the only one to comment?!? this is amazing the fact they can do something like that!

FcL *_* thats wat i like about u
Applequeen5
May 22, 2010, 11:41 pm

COOL! : )
Anonymous
May 24, 2010, 2:14 pm

Mayans are cool thats so cool u got to see that!!
thecampbell5
May 24, 2010, 8:47 pm

I am very happy that they made that discovery!
2whitie
June 2, 2010, 7:17 pm

Sounds like one of those Indiana Jones movies, a whole entire hidden city under a treacherous jungle. Next thing you know, they’ll find evil mummies armed with light sabers. . What is everyone’s favorite Indiana jones episode ’round here? I like the first one.
jindo2108
June 10, 2010, 11:22 pm

I agree, 2white! Cool!
monkey33
October 9, 2010, 4:55 pm

That is awesome!
etiler
April 19, 2012, 5:45 am

Thank you very much for sharing
Etiler