“El Mirador” located in Guatamala is one of the Mayan Wonders of the world along with Tikal. Imagine a Mayan site in the middle of the jungle three times larger than Tikal. The Mirador Basin in northeastern Guatemala is home to the largest tract of untouched rainforest in all of Central America. Within this region lies the remote site of El Mirador, which rivals famous, sprawling, Tikal, and is thought to be the largest Mayan city that ever existed. Among the ruins at El Mirador are the Dante and Tigre pyramids, the former rising more than 230 feet high, and claiming to be the most massive pyramid in the entire world ? yes rivalling even the greatest pyramids o Egypt by volume! Largely unexcavated this site can only be visited on a 5 day jungle trek or by helicopter.
It was first discovered in 1926, and was photographed from the air in 1930, but the remote site deep in the jungle had little more attention paid to it until Ian Graham spent some time there making the first map of the area in 1962. A detailed investigation was begun in 1978 with an archaeological project under the direction of Dr. Bruce Dahlin from the Catholic University of America and Dr. Ray Matheny from Brigham Young University.
Dahlin’s work focused primarily on the “bajo” swamps and mapping, while Matheny’s team focused primarily on
excavations in the site center and architecture. This project ended in 1983. To the surprise of the archaeologists, it was found that a large amount of construction was not contemporary with the large Maya classic cities in the area like Tikal and Uaxactun, but rather from centuries earlier in the Pre-Classic era. In 2003, Dr. Richard D. Hansen, a Senior Scientist from Idaho State University, initiated major investigation, stabilization, and conservation programs at “El Mirador” with a multi-disciplinary approach, including staff and technical personnel from 52 universities and research institutions from throughout the world. By August 2008, the team had published 168 scientific papers, produced 474 technical reports and scientific presentations as well as documentary films in th History Channel, National Geographic, the Learning Channel, BBC, ABC’s 20/20 and Good Morning America, 60 Minutes (Australia), and the Discovery Channel. Dr. Richard D. Hansen is the current director of the “El Mirador”Basin Project, and according to his discoveries here, he thinks that the more than 45 mapped sites in the Basin may have formed the earliest well-defined political state in Mesoamerica.
