2000-year-old Mayan city unearthed under Guatemala rainforest

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Metro News said on Saturday that a researcher was able to locate a large Mayan city underneath the rainforest in Guatemala.

According to the website, the discovery came while the expert was observing the northern part of the country from the air.

The region close to the Mexican border is known as the Mirador-Calakmul Karst Basin and covers around 650 square miles, the report said.

Read more: Mexico: Archaeologists Find Ancient Mayan Canoe

According to archaeologists, the town is almost 2,000 years old and consists of about 1,000 settlements connected by 110 miles of causeways, the media outlet added.

A team of researchers from different American universities, in addition to colleagues from Guatemala and France, made the discovery using LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology.

Interesting Engineering, an engineering and technology website, said the LiDAR is a detection system, similar to that of a radar, however, it uses laser beams rather than radio signals.

Read more: Ancient Mayan site discovered in Mexico, delays train construction

The laser light enabled the researchers to go past the rainforests and uncover what was below them, Metro News said.

The researchers, who published their findings in the Ancient Mesoamerica journal, said, "This study uses airborne Lidar data to demonstrate how complex societies organised their infrastructure to reflect their socio-economic organisation and political power."

Evidence of large facilities and pyramids were also found in some towns, the researchers said, which suggests that they [the towns] served as centralized hubs for work, recreation, and politics.

Ball courts used for a variety of sports were also found in some settlements, the researchers added.

According to the publication, the residents of settlements also built canals to carry water and reservoirs to store it for dry periods.