Related Sponsors

Guatemala Vacations: Itinerary For Day 3

Home » Guatemala » Guatemala Vacations: A One to 3 Day Itinerary » Guatemala Vacations: Itinerary For Day 3

Visit the major Mayan sites, most found in the vast tropical lowland jungles of the Petén Department. Flores is a former Mayan ceremonial center built on an island in the middle of Lake Petén Itza. None of the Mayan structures survived the arrival of the conquistadors who built their main plaza, church and government building on the top of the hill in the center of the island. A causeway connects Flores to the mainland town of Santa Elena, where the banks and main shops are located. Buses run throughout the day from both Santa Elena and Flores to Tikal. The spectacular Mayan ruins of Tikal, the City of Voices, encompass vast pyramidal temples, ball courts, causeways, plazas and public buildings that extend over some 6 square miles. While there are about 3000 known structures, many more lie buried under dense jungle vegetation. First occupied in about 800 BC, this great city was eventually abandoned around 1000 years later. Copies of some of the more elaborate friezes, stelae, sculptures and bas-reliefs are found in the Sylvanus Morley Museum, which is near the entrance. Visitors can stay in the park lodges, in Flores, Santa Elena or El Remate - a pleasant lakeside town - and guided tours around the ruins can be arranged both for the evening and at sunrise. Several other Mayan sites in north Petén are currently under excavation, one of the most impressive being El Mirador, about 2.5 miles from the Mexican border. Also in the northern part of the Department, Uaxactún, known as Eight Stones, shows how developed the Mayan civilization had become by the ninth century AD. Building E-VII-B was used for determining the precise dates of the equinoxes and the solstices. Ixlú was an important lake port, situated in between the Petén Itza and Salpetén lagoons. Further east, on the edge of the Yaxhá Lagoon, Yaxhá (Green Water) is an extensive Mayan site of terraces, plazas and causeways. North from here are the smaller sites of Nakum and Naranjo. Sayaxché is a town in the southern part of the Petén Department that provides a good starting point for exploring other major Mayan sites. Ceibal, southeast of Sayaxché, has a small observatory that was designed to pinpoint the location of galaxies, planets and stars. It is also where some of the finest post-Classical stelae (AD 900 to 1523), carved with large anthropomorphist clay figures, were recovered. Other impressive stelae representing battle scenes were found at Dos Pilas. Southeast from here, the post-Classical site of Aguateca was once an important ceremonial center. In other Departments, there are landmarks such as the remarkable UNESCO Cultural Heritage Site of Quiriguá. The nine Maya-carved stelae around a central plaza are the largest stelae ever discovered in the Mayan world. They are carved with intricate detail, revealing much of their beliefs, animal deities, battles, the feats of their kings and cosmology. Stela E, at 26 feet high, is one of the tallest that has been recovered across the former Mayan Empire.

Resources:
WWW.TERRA.COM
WWW.LONELYPLANTE.COM
WWW.INFOPLEASE.COM

Next Page: Guatemala Activities and Attractions Overview

Related Guatemala Vacations: A One to 3 Day Itinerary Articles