Archeologists in northern Guatemala have discovered remnants of a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan city, with pyramids and monuments indicating the site’s importance as a ceremonial center, the Guatemalan Ministry of Culture announced Thursday.
The city is located in the northern department of Petén and approximately 21 kilometers from the well-known ruins of Uaxactun.
The 16-square-kilometer city is named Los Abuelos, Spanish for “the grandparents.” It received the name after the discovery of two human-shaped statues representing an “ancestral couple.”
According to the ministry, the city is possibly one of the oldest and most important ceremonial centers of the early Maya civilization in the dense rainforest of Petén, near the Mexican border.
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Formed an urban triangle with two other sites
The discovery of Los Abuelos is part of the PARU project, which has explored approximately 1,200 square kilometers for archaeological research since 2009. In the same study, two other locations were identified: Petnal and Cambrayal. According to the ministry, the three locations together form a previously unknown urban triangle.
The Maya civilization originated around 2000 BC and reached its peak between 400 and 900 AD, in an area that now includes parts of southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras.
