Laser-Carrying Airplanes Uncover Massive, Sprawling Maya Cities

In July 2016, a group of archaeologists commissioned a small plane--along with special pilots--to fly over the thick jungle canopy in northern Guatemala, near the border with Mexico. Cruising well above the trees, the pilots combed the area, pointing three lasers at the ground that fired 300,000 pulses of light per second. Over 12 days, the team used the lasers to create one of the largest-scale maps of Maya cities built between 1000 BC to 1500 AD. Although archaeologists have surveyed slivers of these metropolitan ruins in the past, the new maps showcase entire cities for the first time, putting the Maya's formidable pyramids, city roads, and farming terraces in context. This view offers a wider perspective to archaeologists, who have historically been stuck analyzing individual structures at a time.