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A laser from the sky revealed lost cities with mysterious pyramids in the Amazon forests in Bolivia - Walla! Tourism

2022-06-13T21:20:59.276Z


Not just forests: Lost cities with terraces and pyramids have been found in the Amazon using special laser technology, having been hiding there under the tropical forest canopy for centuries


A laser from the sky revealed lost cities with mysterious pyramids in the Amazon forests of Bolivia

Not just forests: Lost cities with terraces and pyramids have been found in the heart of the Amazon using special laser technology, having been hiding there under the tropical forest canopy for centuries

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14/06/2022

Tuesday, 14 June 2022, 00:09

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It turns out that the Amazon contains not only forests and a famous river, but also lost cities with trails, checkpoints, reservoirs, terraces and even pyramids that have been hidden from us for centuries.

The cities are located in the savannah forest Llanos de Mojos in Bolivia, formerly considered uninhabitable.



The cities were built by the Kasrava communities between 500-1400 AD and have so far been hidden under the thickets of trees. Distance measurement technology by illuminating the target with a laser beam, and measuring the time it takes for the light beam to return to the shelter - to peek through the tropical forest canopy.

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To the full article

Lidar photos revealed the architecture of the cities, which consist of staircases topped by U-shaped buildings, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids (Photo: Official Website, Heiko Prumers / DAI)

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The network of "lost" ancient cities was recently discovered in the Amazon, using the innovative laser technology and includes an array of complex structures - unlike previous finds in the area, including 5-meter-high terraces spanning 54 acres and conical pyramids about 20 meters high.

The international team of researchers also found a huge network of water reservoirs, trails and checkpoints, stretching over several kilometers.



The discovery challenges the Amazon's historical view as a "virgin" landscape, the researchers say, showing that the area served as a home to early "towns" created and managed by indigenous populations for thousands of years.

"We have long suspected that the most complex pre-Columbian societies in the whole basin have evolved in this part of the Bolivian Amazon, but the evidence is hidden under the canopy of the forest and difficult to visit in person," said Jose Iriarte of Exeter University.

"Our lidar system revealed built-in terraces, straight paths, enclosures with checkpoints and reservoirs. There are monumental structures that are only one kilometer apart, connected by about 1,000 km of elevated long canals that connect sites, reservoirs and lakes."

Two photos of the same area on the Salvatore site.

Left: Mosaic Photo from a drone photo; Right: A Lidar photo.

By the end of the 20th century it was doubtful that the Amazon region could support any form of settlement other than hunter-gatherer tribes.

The Mojos Plains, on the southwestern fringe of the Amazon region, are flooded several months a year during the rainy season, making them unsuitable for permanent settlement.



In recent decades, however, there has been evidence of irrigation, earthworks, large cities, tracks and canals that often lead miles in a straight line with no way out over the savannahs.

"All of this indicates a relatively dense settlement in the pre-Hispanic period. Our goal was to conduct basic research and trace the settlements and life there," said Dr. Haiko Promers of the German Archaeological Institute, who was also involved in the study.



The study, published in Nature magazine, sheds light on the sheer size and splendor of the civic-ceremonial centers found buried in the forest.

Initial conventional scans revealed a stepped core area, a canal wall enclosing the site and canals.

However, the dense vegetation beneath which these settlements were found prevented researchers from seeing the structural details of the monumental mounds and their surroundings.



To find out more, the researchers used the airborne laser technology, Lidar, for the first time in the Amazon region.

This includes surveying the area with a laser scanner attached to a helicopter, a small plane or a drone that transmits about 1.5 million laser pulses per second. The vegetation is then digitally removed, creating a digital model of the earth, which can also be displayed as a 3D image. Incredibly large sites of 1,500 acres and 3,150 acres in a dense four-tier settlement system.



"With a 1.5-mile north-south extension and an east-west extension of about one mile, the largest site found so far is as large as Boone was in the 17th century," said research partner Prof. Carla James Batencourt of the University of Boone.

This is how it looks

The architecture in the cities consists of stair platforms topped by U-shaped structures, rectangular platform mounds and conical pyramids.

Trail-like paths and canals connect the individual localities and indicate a tight social fabric.

At least one other locality can be found within three miles of each of the currently known localities.

"So the whole area was densely populated, a pattern that goes against all previous ideas," said Prof. Batancourt.

It is not yet possible to estimate how many people lived there.

However, the layout of the settlement indicates that it was quite dense. "



The research team suggests that the scope of work and planning invested in building the cities is unprecedented in the Amazon region. -Sustainable that promoted the preservation of the rich biodiversity of the surrounding landscape.



"Lidar technology combined with extensive archeological research reveals that natives not only managed forested landscapes but also created urban landscapes, which can significantly contribute to the perspectives on the conservation of the Amazon," said Professor Iriarte. To an undiscovered cultural-ecological heritage. "

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  • Bolivia

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  • Pyramids

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Source: walla

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