This technology was conceived by Sarah Parcak, an Egyptologist and professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham. It’s since been used to make astounding discoveries all over the world. Like the five mile long canals the ancient Egyptians dug (since reclaimed by the desert) from the Nile river to the Giza plateau to move the huge blocks of stone bound for the pyramids inland by water. And forts and other lost encampments the Romans built along Hadrian’s wall.
LiDAR’s been around since 1960; Parcak’s been around since 1979.
Her use of LiDAR in Egypt pissed off Zahi “Zowie” Hawass, so she gets props for that. :^)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Parcak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidar
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/sarahparcak/index
http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/remotesensing/index
https://web.archive.org/web/20120324182247/http://www.drhawass.com/blog/bbc-satellite-project