Free Republic

For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy. Even the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not “see” through the trees. Then, in the dry spring season a...

Maya City in 3-D Airborne lasers have "stripped" away thick rain forests to reveal new images of an ancient Maya metropolis that's far bigger than anyone had thought. An April 2009 flyover of the Maya city of Caracol used Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) equipment—which bounces laser beams off the ground—to help scientists construct a 3-D map of the settlement in western Belize. The survey revealed previously unknown buildings, roads, and other features in just four days, scientists announced earlier this month at the International Symposium on Archaeometry in Tampa, Florida. University of Central Florida anthropologists Arlen and Diane Chase...

Trans-border aggression:Tourist raped, another shot near Caracol! Friday, 19 May 2006 By Ann-Marie Williams - News Editor Decommissioned military men from Guatemala’s scaled-down army are believed to be the ones responsible for the recent series of armed attacks against tourists visiting archaeological sites and other destinations in the Cayo District. The situation has become so bad that the United States Embassy in Belize issued a travel advisory cautioning Americans to stay away from the Cayo district. Days after this caution, a commando force of brigands ambushed three tourist groups on their way from Caracol, stripping each tourist of money and...