This shows a very dense occupation and an extremely complex society

In a stunning discovery, archaeologists have uncovered a vast network of pre-Hispanic cities more than 2,500 years old in the Amazon. Located in the Upano Valley, in Amazonian Ecuador, east of the Andes, the settlements have notable urban structures such as straight and wide roads, squares and large groups of monumental platforms.

The international team, made up of researchers from France, Germany, Ecuador and Puerto Rico, used LiDAR – a remote sensing technique – to detect structures beneath the dense tree canopy. This method, also called light detection and ranging, involves emitting laser light to map the surface of the forest.