Experts using an aerial high-tech laser scanner have discovered thousands of ancient Maya structures hidden under the thick jungle of northern Guatemala, officials said Thursday. Some 60,000 structures were found over the past two years in a scan of a region in the northern department of El Peten, which borders Mexico and Belize, said Marcello Canuto, one of the project’s top investigators. These findings are a “revolution in Maya archeology,” Canuto said. The new discoveries in this Central American country include urban centers with sidewalks, homes, terraces, ceremonial centers, irrigation canals and fortifications, said Canuto, an archaeologist at Tulane University in the United States. Among the finds was a 30-meter high pyramid that had been earlier identified as a natural hill in Tikal, Guatemala’s premier archaeological site. Also discovered in Tikal: a series of pits and a 14 kilometer-long wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Experts using an aerial high-tech laser scanner have discovered thousands of ancient Maya structures hidden under the thick jungle of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-publications"],"yoast_head":"\n