Jungle-covered El Mirador is a large pre-Columbian Mayan settlement located in the north of what is now El Petén, Guatemala. This ancient site was once the thriving capital of the Mayan civilization. El Mirador is a real treasure hidden in the rainforest.
The place is very difficult to access. There are no real roads, it will take a long time to reach your destination, but it will be worth it. The amazing place has been hidden in subtropical forests for centuries. Only jaguars and monkeys knew about the existence of rocky mountains between trees.
El Mirador was opened in 1926. The first full-scale research began in 1978, led by Bruce Dahlin of the Catholic University of America and Ray T. Matheny of Brigham Young University. El Mirador is considered by archaeologists to be the cradle of the Mayan civilization and one of the earliest and most developed cities of this ancient culture.
During excavations, archaeologists determined that many of the most complex structures arose long before the classical period of other famous Mayan monumental centers, such as Tikal and Uaxaktun.
Archaeologists have discovered a massive pre-classical Mayan city that rivaled other architectural centers and exceeded the scale of most settlements of the ancient civilization. In fact, it was a giant, but hidden by the jungle and almost inaccessible to most travelers, ancient structures.
Three remarkable pyramids in El Mirador were built over two millennia ago. The largest building is the La Danta complex (height 73 m). It is not as tall as the great pyramid at Giza, but more massive, with a volume of almost 2.5 million cubic meters. meters. The other two pyramids are called El Tigre and Los Monos.
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In ancient times, El Mirador was a very large city, much larger than Tikal, Yakhchilan or Palenque. El Mirador is believed to have been built before 600 BC. BC, and was abandoned around AD 890.
Satellite images have helped scientists make another discovery - an ancient network of highways hidden in the rainforest of Guatemala. 2000 years old, this age makes it the oldest road in the world used for transportation.
Unfortunately, El Mirador is included in the list of endangered sites. The ancient site is threatened by large-scale cleaning and destruction by farming industries, as well as forest fires, illegal logging, poachers and looters.