CNN —Lost for centuries, two cities lay buried, nearly 5 kilometers (3 miles) apart, underneath grassy pastures in the mountains of Uzbekistan. “It’s a really different environment up there,” Frachetti said of the newly discovered Silk Road settlements. However, the newfound highland cities were too big to simply be trading posts or Silk Road stopovers, Frachetti and his colleagues believe. The research marked the first time that light detection and ranging (LiDAR) equipment had been used in the region for archaeological purposes. Using drone-borne light detection and ranging equipment, archaeologists have mapped two abandoned cities in the mountains of Uzbekistan.

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Persons: Michael Frachetti, Tugunbulak, ”, Frachetti, “, ” Frachetti, Michael Frachetti “, Farhod Maksudov, Zachary Silvia, ” Silvia, Tashbulak, It’s Organizations: CNN, Washington University, —, National, of Archeology, Academy of Sciences of, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology, Brown University Locations: Uzbekistan, —, It’s, St . Louis, Machu Picchu, Peru, Republic of Uzbekistan, ”, Tugunbulak, Tashbulak, Central America, Rhode Island, Samarkand, Kashgar, China