The Amazon rainforest has fascinated scientists for decades. (File photo)
The Amazon rainforest is one of the most interesting places on the planet. It contains not only the vast ecosystem, but also many lost cities, which experts have been searching for for centuries.
Among them is El Dorado, a supposedly lost city of gold, for which many Spanish explorers began fruitless trekking in the rainforests of South America.
But now, using a popular laser technology leader, scientists have discovered that ancient cities really did exist on the Amazon. The lasers were beamed from a helicopter 600 feet above the Amazon rainforest, according to the report NatureRevealed that the ‘desert’ of the Amazon rainforest was heavily populated.
“Here we present the leader data of Casarabe culture sites (around 500 AD to 1400 AD) in the Llanos de Mozos Savannah in the southwestern Amazonia,” the article said.
“The cultural area of Casarab, as far as is known, covers an area of about 4,500 sq km, one of the largest settlements, about 500 sq km,” it added.
Researchers have welcomed the discovery, claiming that it shows an early ‘urbanism’ created and managed by indigenous peoples for thousands of years.
“We have long suspected that the most complex pre-Columbian societies in the entire basin developed in this part of the Bolivian Amazon, but the evidence is hidden under forest canopies and is difficult to see in person,” said Jose Erieart of the University of Exeter. Quoted as quoted by Daily letter.
“Terraces, straight causeways, fences with checkpoints and reservoirs built in our leader system have been revealed,” he added.
The lasers also revealed a network of canals connecting reservoirs and lakes to various sites.
A previous study of the area revealed hundreds of isolated sites covering an area of more than 1,700 square miles in the Llano de Mojos region.
