Lidar in the Central American Jungle

Nice little feature at Past Horizons on the use of lidar to map Mayan cities in the jungle. Using this amazing technology, features hidden under the trees can now be mapped from the air as easily as in the desert. These surveys of unexcavated sites in Belize turned up lots of buildings, which were expected, but also several large caves or cenotes. The Maya considered caves to be gateways to the underworld, and their discovery near so many city sites may show that the presence of a cave one of the things the Maya looked for in a town site.