My Google Map Blog

We did a post on Dr. Sarah Parcak back in 2011. She is an archaeologist who frequently makes use of satellite imagery (including Google Earth) to make archaeological discoveries. She has written a book on the subject and even won the $1 million 2016 TED prize for her TED talk on the subject.

A recent story in the news is about a new find near Petra in Jordan that she helped discover, again through the use of satellite imagery. Read more about it here and here and more pictures here. Once the site was identified, archaeologists mapped the area in higher resolution using drones.

It was a little difficult to find the location in Google Earth as no coordinates are given. Although you can clearly make out the rectangular shape once you know where to look, it is not that easy to spot before you know where it is.

The newly identified structure as seen in Google Earth

To find it in Google Earth download this KML file. While you are there, be sure to check out the Street View of Petra. Google Earth doesn’t show the blue lines, but the Street View is there. The Street View was added in November last year.

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