Lidar used to map large ancient city near Angkor Wat

Talking Points Memo : For decades, archaeologists have been seeking the ancient city of Mahendraparvata, thought to have been located in what is now Cambodia. Thanks to ground-mapping efforts that covered a 9-km ² area, a variety of temples and other structures had already been found amid thick forest. But how they were connected, or if they were even related, wasn’t certain. Now, a joint Australian and French team of archaeologists, which used lidar to fully map the city, has revealed a highly populated area covering 35 km ². By shooting laser pulses at the ground from a helicopter, the researchers were able to create a three-dimensional map of ground structures that have long been hidden by dense vegetation. The group crisscrossed the area on and around Phnom Kulen mountain at an altitude of 800 m for several days. What they found was evidence of an apparently highly organized and densely populated city that may have predated the Angkor Wat temple complex, located 40 km to the south. This is the second successful ancient city mapping project announced recently.