A separate team used Lidar to uncover a massive Maya site that stretches approximately 650sq miles (1,700sq km) across northern Guatemala. The scientists spotted 1,000 settlements connected to each by roads that the Maya likely traversed on foot.

"As we get to map more and more of the Yucatán, we basically know that if you throw a dart at the map, wherever that dart falls there will be some sort of Maya infrastructure on it," says Fernandez-Diaz.