Ministry of Culture of Guatemala
Pyramids, monuments and a “unique channel system”… discover the complex city of “Los Abuelos”, a Mayan treasure lost in time.
The Mayan civilization emerged around 2000 BC, reaching its heyday between 400 and 900 AD, and existed not only in Mexico, but also in current Belize and Guatemala.
This is the case with Reform “The grandparents” (“The grandparents”, in translation), a city of about 16 km2 Located about 21 km from the important archaeological site of UAXACTUN, in the department of Peten in northern Guatemala.
The name of the city is due to two human sculptures of an “ancestral couple” found on site.
According to, which cites sources from AFP, the site is dated from the period known as “average pre-classic” from about 800 to 500 BC, and it is believed that it is believed to It was “one of the oldest and most important ceremonial centers” of the Mayan civilization in the area of Peten jungle, Near the border with Mexico, explains the country’s Ministry of Culture.
“The site presents a remarkable architectural planning” with Pyramids and Monuments “Sculpted with unique iconography of the region,” says the ministry. In addition, the city also had a particularity: “ Unique Channel System“.
The figures, dated between 500 and 300 BC, “may be linked to old ritual practices of ancestor worship,” the same entity said.
And these findings can even restructure the understanding of archaeologists in the face of this civilization. “The set of these three places forms a Urban triangle so far unknown… These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and socio-political organization of the pre-history Peten ”, reads in the statement.
