In the past, uncovering a Maya city involved wading through thick jungle and hacking through vegetation with a machete. But technology such as Lidar is now helping to reveal just how widespread the remains of ancient Maya settlements really are.

Juan Carlos Fernandez-Diaz, an engineer at the University of Houston, Texas, who was involved in the latest study, has been mapping areas in Mesoamerica – including Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras – with Lidar for the last 15 years. He says that almost wherever you look you can see well preserved Maya architecture.