Ancient Mayan City 'Chactún' Discovered In Mexican Jungle

[Prunepicker]

Too cool that something this big can be hidden for so long.

From the Huffington Post
Archeologists working deep in the Mexican jungle say they have discovered
a large Mayan city, complete with many monuments and carvings.

The city was found in Campeche, an area in southeastern Mexico that is
home to dozens of Mayan sites, including the ancient city of Calakmul, a
UNESCO World Heritage site.

Dubbed Chactún, “Red Stone,” or “Piedra Grande,” the newest find spans
close to 54 acres and may have been a governmental seat between 600
and 900 A.D., Spanish international news agency EFE reports.

[Snowman]

For how long there has been planes and satellites, it is surprising any area home to dozens of historic sites could still not have been found

[Prunepicker]

For how long there has been planes and satellites, it is surprising any area
home to dozens of historic sites could still not have been found

Exactly. I wonder how many other sites are out there? China? Tibet?
Wyoming?

[Martin]

aerial and satellite photography has aided in the discovery of some sites... the difficulty with many of those in central america is that they're obscured by jungle growth. faitly recently, researchers have discovered that using aerial lidar is a good way to get architectural information that would otherwise be obscured. -M

[ljbab728]

This is not the only recent discovery of that nature.

Cambodia's lost city discovered near Angkor Wat - CSMonitor.com

This was near Angkor Wat, which has been a heavily researched ancient site for many years.

Archaeologists had long suspected that the city of Mahendraparvata lay hidden beneath a canopy of dense vegetation atop Phnom Kulen mountain in Siem Reap province. But the airborne lasers produced the first detailed map of a vast cityscape, including highways and previously undiscovered temples.

"No one had ever mapped the city in any kind of detail before, and so it was a real revelation to see the city revealed in such clarity," University of Sydney archaeologist Damian Evans, the study's lead author, said by phone from Cambodia. "It's really remarkable to see these traces of human activity still inscribed into the forest floor many, many centuries after the city ceased to function and was overgrown."

The laser technology, known as lidar, works by firing laser pulses from an aircraft to the ground and measuring the distance to create a detailed, three-dimensional map of the area. It's a useful tool for archaeologists because the lasers can penetrate thick vegetation and cover swaths of ground far faster than they could be analyzed on foot. Lidar has been used to explore other archaeological sites, such as Stonehenge.