Couple work to unearth secrets of lost Mayan civilization
CBSN
An American couple is using advanced technology to unearth an ancient civilization that might hold the key to building the cities of the future.
Diane and Arlen Chase share a lifetime commitment to exploring. In 1985, the pair came to the ruins of Caracol, an ancient Mayan city in Belize that was first discovered in 1937, and that includes the country's highest structure.
Diane Chase said when they first arrived, there was "no architecture visible," and it all looked like simple hillside. Since then, they have excavated over 400 buildings and uncovered hundreds of thousands of artifacts. At first, they relied on traditional archeological methods, but that all changed in 2009, when they were able to try a revolutionary technology called LiDAR, an airborne laser mapping system that can see through trees and reveal hidden spots that might otherwise have taken decades to discover.
