City of El Mirador

The earliest settlement dates from around 1000-900 BC, and monumental architecture begins to appear around 600 BC. El Mirador reached its peak between 400 BC and 200 AD. Its success is particularly remarkable given its location: deep in the jungle, the agricultural practices used were relatively sophisticated.

​​El Mirador has been called by some “The Cradle of Maya Civilization”. It was, in its time, the largest city in the Americas. It is still the largest known Maya site encompassing an area of 15 sq. miles/36 sq. km.

Inhabitants made the most of the mud from bajos (seasonal swamps), adding lime to improve the pH and making it ready for sowing crops.

The pyramids at El Mirador are particularly noteworthy: gigantic structures, they are what gave El Mirador (literally, the lookout) its name. Most notable are La Danta, El Tigre and Los Monos, three huge pyramidic structures. La Danta is the largest structure in the ancient city of El Mirador, towering 72 meters above the rainforest floor. It is the fifth tallest pyramid in the world.

In the mid second century AD the entire Mirador Basin with its numerous other cities and villages were inexplicably abandoned, or at the least severely depopulated.

El Mirador was not heard from again until 1885 when an area survey of the Mirador Basin was conducted by Claudio Urrutia who reported seeing large ruins. El Mirador lay forgotten by archaeologists until 1926.

The first serious exploration was in 1962 by renowned researcher Ian Graham, who produced the first map of the site. Yet it was not until 2003 that researchers really began to work at the ruin, which sits just four miles south of the Mexican border.
City of El Mirador