LiDAR mapping of the Maya settlement around El Mirador

Record summary

AI-recalled; source quality 5; corroboration 0. LiDAR surveys in the Mirador Basin revealed extensive Maya settlement, causeways, reservoirs, terraces, and defensive-looking earthworks beneath forest cover. The work matters because it challenges older pictures of low-density tropical occupation and permits comparison with urban organization elsewhere in the Maya world. Uncertainty concerns chronology, function, population estimates, and how much of the mapped infrastructure belongs to different periods. The existence of the surveys and their broad findings should be checked against project reports and peer-reviewed archaeological publications rather than popular claims of a single hidden megacity.