GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO EL MIRADOR
El Mirador is a Maya archaeological site of monumental proportions dating from the Pre Classic period, which took place between 900 BC and 150 AD. The site reached its peak during the Late Pre Classic period between 300 BC and 150 AD. El Mirador is located in the northeastern Peten, in Guatemala, within the Mirador- Rio Azul National Park, a nucleus zone within the Maya Biosphere Reserve. The western portion of the park contains a part of the Mirador Basin, home to a great biodiversity and where some of the oldest Maya sites are found, which -due to their antiquity- are considered to be the Cradle of Maya Civilization. These cities and the monumental architecture they exhibit are the oldest and most important legacies of the ancient Maya civilization.
The Maya came to this area and they decided to settle here because of the abundance of mud that was found in swamps and humid low laying areas known as bajos or swamps or marshes. They collected the mud to make terraces for agricultural production. The great abundance of swamps in the area allowed them to add layer after layer of nutrient-rich mud that enabled the development of a production system that provided sustenance for several centuries to one of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world in its earliest manifestation. |
A visitor information system has been set up at the park by the Mirador Basin Project and its collaborators for visitor orientation at the site.
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The swamps are gradually drying up and the mud that the ancient Maya dug up, which gave them life, has become clay...
Above and around the structures they built a dense sub tropical rain forest now grows, which has claimed the impressive buildings and covered the abandoned cities for more than 2,000 years. El Mirador contains hundreds of buildings from the Pre Classic period, although evidence of a small scale occupation during the Classic period has been found at the site. During the latter there were no new constructions as such, but mostly only modifications to earlier buildings during a possible reoccupation of the old site during the Late Classic Period (600 - 900 AD).
Only a rich and powerful sequence of rulers could possibly summon teams of architects and hundreds of workers from the vicinity to work on a huge project: scaffolding in a gigantic scale, coating whole pyramids with layer after layer of stucco and painting mythological decorations in vibrant colors to such an amazing scale. Richard Hansen thinks this kind of conspicuous consumption is what brought the Maya of El Mirador to a deafening silence around the second century AD. One may imagine how much human labor went into these enormous project, such as building La Danta, from the scene that appears at one of the informative panels at El Mirador.
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El Mirador was the largest city and the most important in the basin. It was an important ceremonial and economic center that enjoyed its heyday during the Late Pre Classic (300 BC-150 AD) when it became the first political state to be established in Mesoamerica and in the American continent.
ELIZABETH PAREDES KREBS...
Today, in addition to the impressive cultural legacy that is the subject of intense archaeological research conducted at the site by the Mirador Basin Project, it is also home to a not modest list of resident plant and animal species and it surrounded by the best preserved and largest tract of subtropical rain forest in Central America.
El Mirador is being studied by the Mirador Basin Project integrated by a multidisciplinary scientific team. The project, sponsored by Idaho State University and endorsed by Guatemala’s San Carlos University and the Institute of Anthropology and History, studies the pieces collected during the field seasons back in the laboratory in Guatemala City and is in charge of the archaeological analysis and the collection of samples in their archaeological context. |
The project carries out the consolidation of the buildings, the conservation and stabilization of monumental art. It has the great responsibility of studying the structures at this and other sites around the Mirador basin and is in charge of carrying out excavations during the field seasons. These studies date back to the 60s, when the first survey and mapping were conducted at the site by archaeologist Ian Graham. His findings were published in 1965.
Archaeologist Richard Hansen has spent 30 years studying this site’s cultural heritage and the archaeological studies have now extended to include the natural heritage at the site and into other areas of scientific study, such as the registration of new species of flora and fauna, conservation of the natural resources in the area and include geological and hydrological surveys at El Mirador.
What to do and what to see at El Mirador?
After landing at the Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores, Peten, you may have the opportunity to access the site in two different ways: the first is to travel by ground transportation from Santa Elena to the Community of Carmelita, 86 kilometers north of Flores. Carmelita is the last place any vehicle may access via a very tough dirt road. From there on visitors must go into the jungle by foot and on muleback for an adventure that is beyond any comparison. Most people who have been on this adventure call it the adventure of their lifetimes, a character- forming experience and the closest to nature they have ever been!!!
They must walk over Maya causeways and under the forest canopy through the jungle for two days to get to the site of El Mirador. This tour takes a total of five days and four nights visiting other archaeological sites along the way and covering most of the major archaeological compounds mentioned in this quick introduction. The alternative is a flight by helicopter from the Mundo Maya International Airport in Flores or from the helipad at the Hotel Camino Real Tikal, on Lake Peten Itza, where our company, Ecotourism and Adventure Specialists, operates this unique adventure from. The flight takes approximately 30 minutes to the helipad at El Mirador.
If you arrive by air, you will find the tourist trail immediately to the right of the helipad. |
Jungle as far as the eye can see... dotted by huge pyramids in distant cities interconnected by Maya causeways! For centuries the massive buildings were believed to be mountains, when in reality they are entire cities claimed by a vast subtropical rain forest that has grown for 2 millenia over the plazas, temples, palaces, acropoli, hydraulic systems and other architectural complexes all around the Mirador Basin. This is a view of La Danta as seen from the great Tigre Pyramid at El Mirador, April 2009.
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This path will lead you through an ancient Maya quarry to the central area of the old city, where you will find interpretive panels of the area and a map of the different architectural compounds that you will be able to explore around the site.
If you arrive by foot or by mule you will also arrive at the check point that crosses the trail that comes from the helipad. From this point onward you may decide which area you would like to visit first. The road that goes to the left is the path that leads towards the North Acropolis, called Cascabel Group, where you will appreciate Structures 200 and 204, which may have been used for funerary ceremonies. This group is currently being investigated and restored by archaeologists. You may also see Group E and The Leon Pyramid, which must have been an astronomical observatory. The road that goes to the right from the Cascabel Group, and beyond The Leon Pyramid, leads to a smaller trail where you will find stelae # 1 and # 2, which were found on site. They both seem to have been mutilated by Maya people who lived at the site during the Late Classic Period. By following this path you will connect with the main path leading from the information point at the “entrance to the site” to the Danta Complex.
If you prefer to follow the main path to the right from the information point you will appreciate Structure 34 to the left and the Great Acropolis and Structure 313 to the right. Structure 34 is dated to the Late Pre Classic period (300 BC-150 AD), and is a majestic construction already consolidated and restored, exhibiting the oldest exposed wall in the entire Maya area. Structure 34 is one of the most important buildings in the Tigre Complex, of which it is a part. This complex contains a monumental pyramid, named El Tigre, which is 55 meters tall. Structure 34 is 17 meters tall if measured from the original level of the square up; its main façade is facing north and extends 60 meters on the east-west axis and 40 meters on the north-south axis. It is also known as the Jaguar Paw Temple, as the building features two panels with stucco modeled masks flanking the main staircase in its decorative art, each representing a jaguar paw with an ear spool.
The Ancient Maya of El Mirador built triadic structures that represented the three hearthstones, held sacred by the Maya.
The fire in the middle represents the place of creation.
These three hearthstones -in turn- are also represented by 3 stars you will find in "our" constellation of Orion, while the fire is Orion's nebula, M42.
The Maya assigned great importance to transmitting their creation mythology through their architecture.
So important it was that the Maya astronomer could "see" the three hearthstones in the night sky just below the Turtle Constellation. For an animated explanation of this please visit www.miradorpark.com/ancient.htm
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This building is very important because it has yielded data for 30 years. Furthermore, a tunnel was dug under it and it revealed that there is an earlier building dating from about 400 BC below the structure. The previous building manifests the same kind of decorative art, the stucco masks, and the one found in the substructure still retains its original colors. Access to this substructure is not allowed but an interpretive panel -showing a representation of it- may be seen at the bottom of the structure.
To the right of the path we can find the steps leading visitors to the Grand Central Acropolis which covers an area of approximately 85,000 mts 2. At the acropolis we may appreciate Structure 313, which is already consolidated and restored, which shows the triadic pattern we will come to understand as an important characteristic of Pre Classic Maya architecture, similar to the one found on Structure 34. Structure 313 shows five successive construction stages. You will also be able to appreciate the decorative art on this building, which has two masks that are in a good state of conservation. Some of the stucco fragments are painted with the original colors.
Returning to the trail you were you will head towards La Danta Complex, located on the east end of the ancient city. On the way to La Danta you will find countless buildings that are still buried along the way as you walk for 40 minutes until you find a gateway to the central area from the city coming from La Danta, which is connected by a causeway to the campsite area. |
This is an amazing Maya building believed to be the most voluminous pyramidal structure ever built. A 15 minute walk further and you will come to the Great Plaza, on the side of the causeway.
It was a large square, which is located at the foot of La Danta’s first platform, stretching 300 meters from north to south by 600 meters from east to west, where you will appreciate the original steps at the base of this building of stunning dimensions.
La Danta Complex consists of three large platforms, which climb to a height of 74 meters from the ground level of the plaza to the top of the main building, located on the third platform and exhibiting a triadic pattern at the top. It should be noted that within the first platform, there are countless Late Pre Classic buildings as well as buildings from the Classic Period, reflecting a later occupation or reoccupation of the site before the second and final abandonment of the city. In the Late Classic period, apparently, the Maya returned to inhabit the complex and established a small town in what was once the Pre Classic period’s largest and most massive building in their most important city. Among the most important buildings on the first platform is an architectural group called La Pava, located southwest of the platform, also displaying 3 buildings in the triadic architectural pattern, at the top of the platform. One may also observe large ceremonial masks decorating these buildings.
After ascending to the second and third platforms we find the main building of La Danta, known to archaeologists as structure 2A8-2, the consolidation and restoration of which has taken much of the project’s attention since the 2005 field season. This building, which is still in the process of being restored, now has a wooden ladder at the back of the building through which you may gain access to the top. From the highest point of La Danta, visitors will be able to appreciate the vast expanse of forest that covers the city of El Mirador and other cities that may be distinguished on the horizon... From La Danta you can see other important cities nearby such as Nakbe to the southeast and El Tintal to the south. The same road that leads from the camp to La Danta is the path that continues and will lead you to Nakbe on a 3 ½ hour walk. Nakbe is the oldest city in the basin. From Nakbe one may choose to go on the long road to Dos Lagunas, through the sites of La Muralla and Naachtun, but that is a whole adventure in itself... On the causeway or road that leads to the Danta Complex from the main camp at El Mirador, we will see a sign that leads us to an unexplored and little studied compound to the right known as the Guacamaya Group. As we walk back toward the camp we may take a detour from the main trail to the El Tigre compound to the right or continue walking toward Structure 34. |
Adelzo Pozuelos, who co authored the article on this webpage, is part of the Mirador Basin Project, in which coordinated efforts and teamwork are the point of departure for great results in what has been considered to be the largest archaeological dig in the world and the most important scientific project both in scope and in size in the entire Maya World region .
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This imposing giant, El Tigre stands 55 meters tall and its platform base is so large that all of Tikal’s Grand Plaza (Temple I and Temple II) and the North Acropolis of Tikal could all fit into it. The Great Tigre Pyramid is still in the process of being studied and is accessible through a flight of dirt steps. It is a very steep climb and perhaps not for everyone, as the descent will require your full concentration and it must be done very carefully.
Do not try to go everywhere and see all of El Mirador in one day if you have more time to enjoy this huge site. If you are here to visit only for a day your visit will include the most important of the excavated areas at the site. Your guides and custodians at the site will know where to take you and show you only those complexes that are open to the public and where your safety and enjoyment will be our top priority every step of the way. For your own safety and in order to achieve greater enjoyment of El Mirador it is necessary to pay attention and obey the suggestions and indications of the park guards at the site, who are the appointed authority by the Institute of Anthropology and History. Make sure to leave El Mirador as beatuiful as you found it and take all your trash out back with you... Enjoy your visit & find out more about our tours or learn about the amazing scientific adventure in our archaeology and architecture section. We hope you enjoy Miradorpark.com
- Adelzo Pozuleos & Carla Molina
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