10 Must-See Ancient Mayan Sites in Guatemala
Ancient Mayan sites and Mayan ruins converge in Guatemala. This is the land where the Maya came to life, the civilization responsible for many of the astronomical and mathematical discoveries we still use today.
In spite of the political disputes and divisions during the independence of Honduras and Mexico that removed some ancient Mayan sites from within Guatemala’s political borders, Guatemala is still the largest home to Maya culture and many must-see ancient Mayan sites!
Join me as I explore 10 of them, and walk you through one of the most important cultures of the Americas.
1. Iximché
- Distance from Guatemala City: 56 miles (91 kilometers)
- Location: Tecpán municipality, Chimaltenango department, Guatemala
Iximché is one of the coolest (and I also mean that literally) ancient Mayan sites that you can find in Guatemala. From Guatemala city you can take the Panamerican highway that takes you to the west and enter the Chimaltenango department. You can rent a cabin in Tecpán, where it gets really cold at night, and from there drive to Iximché.
While this archeological site has ancient Mayan ruins, they are some of the “latest” you can find. Iximché was the capital of the kaqchikel kingdom between 1470 and 1527 and the first capital of the Spanish kingdom in Mesoamerica
They are historical because the Quiché and Kakchiquel kingdoms fought in this city, and these fights are ultimately what made the Spanish conquer Guatemala and the rest of Mayan territories more easily.
You can access the park for 6.50 USD (50 Quetzales) everyday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In this 50-hectare archeological park you will find many ancient ruins, including a space where Mayans used to play the ancient pitz—a ball game which they sometimes used as an alternative to war, but the loser paid with his life.
You can find more ruins and you can find Mayas performing ceremonies around the park, which you are welcome to watch, but must respect at all times.
2. Utatlán or Q’umarkaj
- Distance from Guatemala City: 100 miles (160 kilometers).
- Location: Santa Cruz del Quiché municipality, Quiché department, Guatemala
Remember how I mentioned that Iximché was the capital of the Kakchiquel kingdom and how they had constant fights with the Quiché kingdom? Utatlán (or Q’uma’rkaj in Quiché) was the capital of the Quiché kingdom and is the most well-known former city in the Guatemalan plateau. The Quiché kingdom established this city in the year 1,400 and Spaniards conquered it 124 years later.
In the former Quiché capital, you can still find natives performing ancient rituals, which just like the Kaqchikel rituals, I advise you to watch but to respect at all times. If you want to visit this place you can access the park everyday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and locals pay around 0.75 USD (5 quetzales) to enter, but locals may ask foreigners about 6 USD to enter the place.
In Q’uma’rkaj archeologists have found pieces of pottery as old as the preclassical Maya era (1,000 BC-250 BC) but have found many more of the postclassical Maya era pieces too. Just like in Iximché you’ll be able to find a pitz field and some other ancient Maya ruins. While this isn’t the biggest or most ancient Maya site you’ll find in Guatemala, it’s worth visiting because of its importance and connection to Iximché.
3. Tikal
- Distance from Guatemala City: 327 mi (527 km)
- Location: Flores municipality, Petén department, Guatemala
Tikal has got to be the most important and iconic ancient Maya site that there is in Guatemala. It is in the department of Petén and the municipality of Flores in Guatemala. The impressive pyramids you’ll see on this site are from the 4th century BC
Tikal Mayan ruins are so important that UNESCO declared it a world heritage site in 1979. While some people take the tour in only one day, it is advisable to take it more calmly and reserve at least two days to visit the park.
You’ll have around 12 hours to visit it, since they open the park at 6 a.m. and close it at around 6:30 p.m. You’ll have to pay 19.4 USD (150 quetzales) in order to enter the archeological park and be able to visit it.
You won’t regret it. This park is deep within the Guatemalan jungle and there might be some mosquitos but they’ll be worthwhile for all the astonishing pyramids you’ll be able to see. The tallest one is 187 feet (57 meters) tall, but it might be difficult to tell since there are some more temples with similar heights.
This place was so large that archeologists have found more than 4,000 pieces of the Maya culture and they estimate that they’ve discovered only about 20% of it.
FUN FACT! The scene in Star Wars staged in the Yavin IV planet actually uses Tikal as its location.
4. Kaminaljuyú
- Distance from Guatemala City (La Aurora International Airport): 5 mi (8 km)
- Location: Guatemala City municipality, Guatemala department, Guatemala
Kaminaljuyú is an ancient Mayan site located in Guatemala City. The place is close to the airport as it takes you around 15 minutes to get there (in a day without traffic jams).
This ancient city is one of the oldest ones. The Maya built it around 1,200 BC, next to lake Miraflores—which doesn’t exist anymore. The city stood for about 2,100 years until the year 900 A.C.
These ancient Mayan ruins had more than 200 hills in which there were Mayan buildings. Sadly, around 90% of the park was lost due to the expansion of Guatemala City. But the 10% remaining is still protected and you can find 13 fields of the pitz game. Some archeologists found engineering, and architecture instruments that Mayans used, as well as some sculptures.
To access the park you’ll need to pay a fee of 6.50 USD (50 quetzales) and you’ll have 8 hours to check it all out, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
5. Quiriguá
- Distance from Guatemala City: 129 mi (208 km)
- Location: Los Amates municipality, Izabal department, Guatemala
Quiriguá is another amazing place with Mayan ruins. This archeological park is in the department of Izabal, in the Guatemalan caribbean. This place is highly important in current Guatemala and so it was when ancient Mayan tribes inhabited it.
You’ll be able to access the park everyday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and you’ll need to pay 10.34 USD (80 Quetzales). The experience will be more than worthwhile since you’ll be able to see the biggest stele in Central America, which has an altitude of 34 feet (10.6 meters) tall and a weight of 65 tons.
You’ll also find other 6 Mayan steeles which tell the story and remember the ancient Mayan ruler who defeated the tribe’s enemy.
This is also a very important place since UNESCO declared it world heritage on October 31st 1981.
6. Zaculeu
- Distance from Guatemala City: 163 mi (263 km)
- Location: Huehuetenango municipality, Huehuetenango department, Guatemala
The Zaculeu ruins are in the Huehuetenango department in the Guatemalan plateau, close to the Pacific ocean. The Zaculeu ruins were home to the Mam people—one of the Maya tribes—and they held commercial relationships with the Mayans in Kaminaljuyú.
In this archeological site of ancient Mayan ruins you can find 43 different structures which include pitz pits, and some ancient town squares, as well as pyramids, and temples to explore. You can also enter the museum and explore the Mayan artifacts displayed there.
You can access this park from Monday to Sunday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and the entrance fee is 6.50 USD (50 quetzales) for foreigners, and nationals pay 0.65 USD (5 quetzales).
FUN FACT! Zaculeu means “white land.”
7. Uaxactún
- Distance from Guatemala City: 341 mi (549 km)
- Location: Flores municipality, Petén department, Guatemala
Uaxactún is around 15 miles away from Tikal. From Tikal, you can get there with a 4×4 car along the unpaved road. Here you can find ancient Mayan ruins that the Mayans used between 500 BC and 1,200 A.D.
In this park, you can find 8 groups, out of which 4 are highly important, A, B, E and H. In the A site you’ll find 34 ancient Mayan buildings, squares and palaces. The B group holds 36 ancient Mayan buildings and a pitz pit, as well as a palace that archeologists have called structure B-XIII that has a mural. The E group has a structure related to astronomy, science to which Mayans contributed greatly.
You can access this park every day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and one of the best things about this is that there is no entrance fee.
8. Yaxhá
- Distance from Guatemala City: 329 mi (530 km)
- Location: Flores and Melchor de Mencos municipalities, Petén department, Guatemala
Yaxhá is one more ancient Mayan site that used to be a ceremonial site. Mayans occupied this ancient city for 1,600 years—between 600 BC and 900 A.D.
This ancient Mayan site holds 500 structures, amongst which you can find around 40 steeles, altars, pyramids, and two pitz pits. You can also find some structures that the Mayans built in order to irrigate their crops that are still there. Astronomical complexes also appear in the ancient Mayan ruins.
In this park, you’ll have 10 hours to explore everything, because the park is open every day between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. As a foreigner, you’ll need to pay around 10 USD (80 quetzales).
9. Topoxté
- Distance from Guatemala City: 329 mi (530 km)
- Location: Flores municipality, Petén department, Guatemala
Topoxté is yet another astonishing Mayan site in Petén, near Uaxactún in 5 of a 6-island complex in the Yaxhá lake in Petén. Scientists and archeologists who discovered and have studied it believe that the Mayans who inhabited Topoxté were short because the structures there are too small for a standard-height person. Its population used to produce obsidian.
Mayans abandoned this city in the year 900 AD and reoccupied it for 300 more years between 1,100 and 1,450 AD. On Topoxté island you can find around 100 Mayan structures with two platforms and several residential Mayan sites. In the central square, you can find three pyramids.
You can access the place through a boat and hear the monkeys that inhabit the Guatemalan jungle. You can also take the tour the same day you visit Yaxhá.
10. Samabaj
- Distance from Guatemala City: 98 mi (158 km)
- Location: Lake Atitlán, Sololá department, Guatemala
Samabaj are underwater Mayan ruins. These Mayan ruins are in (or under) lake Atitlán. Some people refer to these ancient Mayan ruins as the Mayan Atlantis (La atlántis maya) because the ruins used to be on an island in Atitlán lake but this settlement sank out of the blue.
There are three theories that try to explain the sinking of these ruins:
- A sudden flood
- An eruption which could have driven the water up
- A gigantic earthquake
Mayan civilizations inhabited this place in the pre-classical era, around 2,000 years ago. The Guatemalan diver, Roberto Samayoa discovered the place in 1996. He found quite a few archeological Mayan pieces. He found eight structures in a hallway where there’s a stele, stairs, and a room with well-sculpted walls.
FUN FACT! The name Samabaj comes from mixing the last name Samayoa (Sam) with the word abaj, which means stone or rock.
Explore the Ancient Mayan Ruins Speaking Spanish!
Guatemala is an archaeologically rich country with amazing spring-like weather all year long, and while Guatemala has 22 Mayan languages, Spanish is the official language of the whole country! Get ready to make the best out of your next visit to Guatemala by signing up for a free Spanish class with one of our friendly Guatemalan teachers today! Polish your Spanish and learn the intricacies of Guatemalan slang.
Besides making your travels flow more smoothly, learning Spanish has countless advantages! By being bilingual you could get the job of your dreams, or make anywhere between 50,000 and 125,000 USD additional earnings.
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