Satellite imagery meshed with video-game technology allows University of Colorado at Boulder and NASA researchers to virtually “fly” along footpaths used by Central Americans 2,000 years ago on spiritual pilgrimages to ancestral cemeteries.

Researchers can trace the movements of ancient people in the Arenal region of present-day Costa Rica, who used single-file paths to navigate rugged terrain. The same processional routes were used for more than 1,000 years, in spite of periodic abandonment of villages due to violent eruptions of nearby Arenal Volcano.

This repeated use resulted in narrow trenches in the landscape up to 10 feet deep. This enabled new technology to see them, in spite of the fact that they were covered by multiple layers of ash from eruptions, and are now covered with thick vegetation. The footpaths — some virtually invisible to observers on the ground — collect water that stimulates increased root growth in the vegetation, and this appears as red lines on satellite infrared photography.

Spaceflight Now: Movements of ancient Central Americans tracked by satellites

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Our Costa Rica trips for women always travel to the Arenal Volcano area. Still an active volcano today, it is frequently erupting. Now as you tour the region, you can think of those ancient footpaths — 2000 years old, lost in the jungle, and rediscovered from space. Wow.