The ruins of a large Mayan town were recently discovered in Guatemala. While surveying Northern Guatemala, the Mayan town was discovered buried beneath the rainforest. Here’s all you need to know about the latest discovery of the 2,000-year-old city.
The discovery happened near the Mexican border and spans 1683.49 square kilometres (650 square miles). Researchers have estimated that the city would have existed 2,000 years ago. The region where the discovery was made is known as the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin. The city would have consisted of roughly 1,000 settlements connected by 177 kilometres (110 miles) of causeways, according to NDTV. Causeways are cleared and raised beds that were used as roads.
How was the Mayan city discovered?
This discovery was published in the journal Ancient Mesoamerica by the University of Cambridge. The site was discovered using LiDAR, a detection system based on laser light. Researchers used LiDAR because it can penetrate rainforests and reveal what is underneath. “More than 775 ancient Maya settlements are identified within the MCKB, and 189 more in the surrounding karstic ridge, which we condensed into 417 ancient cities, towns, and villages of at least six preliminary tiers based on the surface area, volumetrics, and architectural configurations,” added the researchers in the published study.
LiDAR technology shoots pulses of light from the air (through an aerial device like a drone or even a plane) into the dense forest, allowing the researchers to look beneath the vegetation without actually having to remove it. Researchers from multiple American and French institutions worked together on this discovery.
Evidence of large platforms and pyramids have been found in some settlements of the Mayan city, the researchers suggest that they may have served as centralised hubs for recreation, work and politics. According to Reuters, the 177 kilometres of causeways may be the world’s first highway network. Furthermore, the researchers added that certain settlements had ball courts that may have been used for playing sports native to the region.
Feature image credit: Kanenori/Pixabay; hero image credit: cambridge.org
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