This is incredible. Even the scientists are awestruck over what's been discovered and were just there not long ago.

Houston, professor of archaeology and anthropology at Brown University, told the BBC that the revelation of the sprawling Central American civilization was "breathtaking." He said, "I know it sounds hyperbolic, but . . . it did bring tears to my eyes."
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When my wife and I went to Tikal a couple of years ago we were mesmerized by the vastness of the site itself not to mention the huge temples the Mayans built there. It was incredible to think that nearly a million people could have lived here 1500 years ago.
What really peaked my interest was finding out that archaelogists knew of hundreds of more ruins that were still covered with vegetation that they just didn't have the time or money to clean off and "re-discover". Little by little as funds become available the ruins are being cleaned off and brought back into view for tourists and scientists alike.
Everyone knew there was a lot more to discover in Guatemala but the shear volume of work made it impossible to realize or know where to start. That's what makes this new discovery so incrdible.

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Using a Lidar system scientists were able to get a view of the jungle floor without the vegetation revealing 10's of thousands of hidden ruins.

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Lidar is a bit like radar and sonar which have been used for many years, except it uses lasers fired at 150,000 pulses per second to remove the foliage like some sort of geographic xray machine. To say it has the scientists excited would be an understatement.

Thomas Garrison, an archaeologist at Ithaca College who led the project, called it monumental: “This is a game changer,” he told NPR. It changes “the base level at which we do Maya archaeology.”

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Interesting Facts Discovered:

• Among the many military buildings found were walls, moats and fortresses. Another amazing discovery is the fact that several of the cities were connected by causeways. It is not estimated that as many as 15 million people once lived in the jungles of Guatemala!

• The lidar system is mounted on planes and flown over the jungle to record data. Technically they only use about 8% of the data, but they are just no realizing how much value even this unused data could hold. For instance the data could be used to study how long it takes the jungle to repair after a fire or what is the carbon footprint.

• A massive fortress was also discovered less than 200 feet from where archaeologists were working in 2010. If they would have discocered just this one fortress in 2010 it would have been a huge discovery. But now, they have found thousands of new sites.

• Based on the military style of a lot of the buildings it is believed now that the mayans were much more warring than even previously thought.

• It is also apparent now that virtually every piece of land was once cultivated. The agriculture was much more intensive and sustainable than once thought.

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If you enjoy visiting ancient sites and studying ancient peoples as much as me, you have to agree that this is a remarkable discovery that will bring many more pieces of information about the Mayans. Not only that but it will lead to new destinations in Guatemala for interested travelers to check out which will also be good for Guatemalans in general. Every where we have visited in Latin america we have seen Mayan ruins and they always amaze me. Enjoy some of our photos from past trips below.

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If you enjoyed please upvote, follow and resteem!
My other posts concerning Guatemala:

https://steemit.com/travel/@qberry/we-gave-up-everything-for-the-simple-life-part-ii

https://steemit.com/travel/@qberry/lake-atitlan-guatemala-one-of-the-best-places-on-earth

https://steemit.com/travel/@qberry/releasing-sea-turtles

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