The ruins of a huge Mayan town were discovered by researchers buried underneath the rainforest of Guatemala when they surveyed the northern part from the air, Metro News reported.
As per the report, the region, which is near the Mexican border and is spread over 650 square miles, is called Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin.
According to the estimate of the archaeologists, the city, which must be 2,000 years old, should have included around 1,000 settlements, as causeways connected them.
The causeways, which were navigable and 110 miles long, made it easier for the civilisation’s inhabitants to reach the settlements nearby.
The team of researchers, belonging to various American universities along with collaborators from Guatemala and France, made the discovery using LiDAR (light detection and ranging).
Interesting Engineering explained that LiDAR is a kind of detection system which uses laser light and not radio waves. The researchers decided to use this system because LiDAR has the ability to penetrate rainforests and find hidden treasures underneath.
The journal Ancient Mesoamerica published the study in which the researchers claimed, “This study uses airborne Lidar data to demonstrate how complex societies organised their infrastructure to reflect their socio-economic organisation and political power.”
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As per the release, evidence of pyramids and large platforms was also found by the researchers in some settlements, which, they added, suggests that few of them were used as centralised places for politics, work and recreation.
The researchers noted that some settlements included ball courts which as per the research carried out before were used for playing different sports which were native to the region.
It was also discovered that people belonging to the civilisation built canals which were used to transfer water and reservoirs were constructed to store them for use in dry periods.
(With inputs from agencies)
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