Ancient Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan captured through advanced lidar technology. Credit: fdecomite / CC BY 2.0 Researchers recently used drones with special light-sensing tools, known as lidar, to discover two ancient Silk Road cities in Uzbekistan’s mountains. This is the first time in Central Asia that such advanced drone technology has been used to study high-altitude archaeological sites. Often used to map areas blocked by thick vegetation, lidar proved equally effective in capturing the rugged landscape of Uzbekistan’s mountains, providing a clear ...