‘Lost’ ancient Mexican city had as many buildings as Manhattan, laser map shows

A "lost" Mexican city built by rivals to the Aztecs has as many buildings as Manhattan and was home to around 100,000 people, according to new research. The sprawling urban centre of Angamuco which was part of the Purépecha empire that peaked in the 16th century was detected by an aerial laser mapping technique called the Lidar system. An aircraft beamed out laser pulses and experts later examined the signals that bounced back from the ground, which helped them pull together a 3D map of the city near modern day Morelia in the state of Michoacan in western Mexico.