Hidden Maya city discovered in Mexico jungle by doctoral student: “There’s a lot more to be discovered” [Video]

A sprawling Maya city with palaces and pyramids was discovered in a dense Mexican jungle by a doctoral student who unknowingly drove past the site years ago on a visit to Mexico. 

Tulane University archeology doctoral student Luke Auld-Thomas was in Mexico about a decade ago traveling between the town of Xpujil, an archaeology site, and coastal cities, when he drove past the unexplored settlements burrowed deep in the landscape. 

But combing through those dense jungles needed the assistance of Lidar, a remote sensing technology that uses lasers to measure the distances of objects on the Earth’s surface.

And this can be very costly. Funders are often reluctant to invest in Lidar surveys in areas where no visible evidence of Mayan settlements exist, Auld-Thomas said. 

But, several years later Auld-Thomas had an idea. He would use pre-existing surveys to find out if Maya civilizations could be located in these areas. 

“Scientists in ecology, forestry …