Thousand-year-old 'lost' pyramid city uncovered in the heart of Mexico using lasers had as many buildings as modern Manhattan Experts used lasers to send beams of light from an aircraft to the ground below to build up a map of the area They discovered a lost pyramid city known as Angamuco built by the Purépecha, rivals to the Aztecs The city was more than double the size of Tzintzuntzan, the culture's capital, at 10 square miles (26 sq km) It contained 40,000 building foundations which is roughly the same as on the island of Manhattan
Mena: Amazing Perepucha people city of Angamuco unearthed in Central Mexico. The city of Angamuco dating from the Middle Age have 40,000 buildings the same amount of buildings as the island of Manhattan in New York city. The new laser on a plane technology call LIDAR is making possible new discovery. Last month they had discovered a 60,000 buildings and pyramid city in Guatemala.
I dont think anybody in the world know the complete history of the world because hundred if not thousand of cities and civilizations are buried under the ground and the sea. When the LIDAR plane laser technology is use in Africa, Asia, USA, Canada and South America many more cities and civilizations will be discovered.
An ancient city as densely built up as Manhattan has been discovered in the heart of Mexico, thanks to pioneering imaging techniques. Experts used lasers to send beams of light from an aircraft to the ground below, measuring the reflected pulses to build up a map of the region (pictured)
Imaging revealed that Angamuco was laid out in an unusual configuration, with monuments like pyramids and plazas dotted around (left) eight zones on the edges of the city rather than concentrated as a focal point in the centre. Researchers found that the city (right) was more than double the size of Tzintzuntzan, the culture's capital, at 10 square miles (26 sq km)
The lost city of Angamuco was laid out in an unusual configuration, with monuments like pyramids and plazas dotted around eight zones on the edges of the city rather than concentrated as a focal point in the centre. It was built by the Purépecha, a group of indigenous people from the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico
Lidar has been used before by archaeologists to unearth hidden cities in the Americas. Earlier this month images were released by researchers from Brown University showing an ancient Mayan 'megalopolis' in Guatemala, which now lies buried beneath the jungle foliage
WHAT IS LIDAR TECHNOLOGY AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Lidar is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by shooting a laser at a target and analysing the light that is reflected back.
The technology was developed in the early 1960s and uses laser imaging with radar technology that can calculate distances.
It was first used in meteorology to measure clouds by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The term lidar is a portmanteau of 'light and 'radar.'
Lidar uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light to image objects and can be used with a wide range of targets, including non-metallic objects, rocks, rain, chemical compounds, aerosols, clouds and even single molecules.
A narrow laser beam can be used to map physical features with very high resolution.
This new technique allowed researchers to map outlines of what they describe as dozens of newly discovered Maya cities hidden under thick jungle foliage centuries after they were abandoned by their original inhabitants.
Aircraft with a LiDAR scanner produced three-dimensional maps of the surface by using light in the form of pulsed laser linked to a GPS system.
'Now it is no longer necessary to cut through the jungle to see what's under it,' said Marcello Canuto, one of the project's top investigators.
The technology helped researchers discover sites much faster than using traditional archaeological methods.
Documenting these sites now is critical, because 'accelerating rates of global change are threatening our patrimony in ways we’ve never seen before,' Professor Fisher added.
Earlier this month images were released by researchers from Brown University showing an ancient Mayan 'megalopolis' in Guatemala, which now lies buried beneath the jungle foliage.
Researchers announced the groundbreaking discovery of more than 60,000 previously unknown structures including pyramids, palaces, and causeways, that once made up a massive pre-Columbian civilization.
To uncover the megalopolis, the team used Lidar to look beneath the forest canopy in northern Peten - an area close to already-known Mayan cities.
The discovery suggests that Central America supported a civilization that was, at its peak 1,500 years ago, more advanced than ancient Greek and Chinese cultures.
The landscape may have been home to up to 15 million individuals and the abundance of defensive walls, ramparts and fortresses suggests that warfare was rife throughout their existence and not just at the end.
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