Guatemala – The Map Room https://www.maproomblog.com Blogging about maps since 2003 Mon, 05 Feb 2018 23:29:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://www.maproomblog.com/xq/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/cropped-logo-2017-04-32x32.jpg Guatemala – The Map Room https://www.maproomblog.com 32 32 116787204 LIDAR Mapping Reveals a Far Greater Mayan Civilization https://www.maproomblog.com/2018/02/lidar-mapping-reveals-a-far-greater-mayan-civilization/ Mon, 05 Feb 2018 23:29:50 +0000 http://www.maproomblog.com/?p=1784924 More]]> A 2016 aerial survey of ten sites in Guatemala’s Maya Biosphere Reserve used LIDAR to digitally remove the tree canopy from the landscape, revealing, National Geographic reports, “the ruins of a sprawling pre-Columbian civilization that was far more complex and interconnected than most Maya specialists had supposed”—and one that likely supported a much higher population than previously thought. The survey and its findings are the subject of a documentary special premiering tomorrow on the National Geographic channel. More coverage: CBC News, The New York Times, The Verge, The Washington Post.

]]> 1784924 Guatemala’s Giant Relief Map https://www.maproomblog.com/2017/09/guatemalas-giant-relief-map/ Wed, 20 Sep 2017 01:52:52 +0000 http://www.maproomblog.com/?p=4906 More]]>
Mapa en Relieve de Guatemala. Photo by H. Grobe, July 2012. Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons licence.

Atlas Obscura has the story of Guatemala’s Mapa en Relieve, an exaggerated-relief 3D relief model of the country. The 1:10,000-scale horizontal, 1:2,000-scale vertical map is approximately 1,800 square metres in area and made of concrete. Built by Francisco Vela and put on display in 1905, the map includes present-day Belize as part of Guatemala, which claimed the British Honduras at that time. It kind of reminds me of British Columbia’s Challenger Map, only a half-century older and made of concrete rather than wood. [WMS]

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