The old Mayan city unearthed in Guatemala, including pyramids and a

Archaeologists have unearthed the remains of a Mayan city of almost 3,000 years in northern Guatemala, with pyramids and monuments that point to its importance as an important ceremonial site, the Ministry of Culture of the Central American country said Thursday.

The Mayan civilization emerged around the year 2000 a. C., reaching its height between 400 and 900 AD in what is southern Mexico and current Guatemala, as well as parts of Belize, El Salvador and Honduras.

The city called “Los Abuelos”, Spanish for “Los Abuelos”, once was about 13 miles from the important archaeological site of Uaxactun, in the department of Peten of Northern Guatemala, the ministry said in a statement.

It is date to what is known as the period “Middle Preclassic” of approximately 800 to 500 a. C., and it is believed that it was “one of the oldest and most important ceremonial centers” of the Mayan civilization in the Peten Jungle area near the Mexican border, he added.

“The site presents a remarkable architectural planning”, with pyramids and monuments “sculpted with unique iconography in the region,” said the ministry.

The city takes its name from two human sculptures of an “ancestral couple” found on the site.

The figures, dated between 500 and 300 a. C., “they could be linked to the old ritual practices of cult of ancestors,” the ministry said.

“Single Channel System”

The city, which covers an area of ​​approximately six square miles, was discovered by Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists in previously little explored areas of the Uaxactun Park.

Nearby, they also found a 108 -foot high foot pyramid with murals of the preclassic period and “a single channel system,” according to the statement.

“The set of these three sites forms a previously unknown urban triangle … These findings allow us to rethink the understanding of the ceremonial and sociopolitical organization of pre -Hispanic Peten,” said the ministry.

The officials released a video that shows archaeologists digging on the site and recovering a variety of artifacts, as well as an animation of the complex.

In April, scientists discovered an altar of 1,000 years old of the ancient Teotihuacan culture of Mexico in Tikal, in other parts of the department of Péen.

That finding was interpreted as proof of ties between the two pre -Hispanic cultures, which lived about 800 miles away. Archaeologists also said it was believed that the altar had been used for sacrifices, “especially children.”

Tikal, about 15 miles from Uaxcatun, is the main archaeological site in Guatemala and one of its biggest tourist attractions.

Last October, an American doctoral student uncovered An extensive Mayan city within a dense jungle in Mexico.

Scientists and archaeologists have discovered old Mayan ruins shooting laser Below a plane to penetrate the dense jungle.

• Guatemala
• Archaeologist