PETÉN - Guatemala - page 561

here is from the community of Bethel. The Posada Maya Bethel can arrange trips to Yax-
chilán for about $100 round-trip. A cheaper option is to book a trip on one of several boats
heading downstream to Frontera Corozal. You can hire a boat from Frontera Corozal to
the ruins for about $60 round-trip for up to four people. It's about a 45-minute trip down-
stream to the site and an hour upstream on the return.
Piedras Negras
About 40 kilometers downstream amid the dense rainforests of Sierra del Lacandón lie the
exotic ruins ofPiedras Negras. The site is exquisite both because ofits location ona lonely
stretch of river and for the quality of its carved monuments, which are considered some of
thebestintheMayanworld.Itsremotenessgivesyoutheprivilegedsensationofbeingone
of a very select number of visitors and, along with El Mirador, most closely mirrors what
the early explorers must have felt upon first rediscovering some of the great Mayan cities.
Piedras Negras was founded sometime around A.D. 300 and fought Yaxchilán for much
of its history in a struggle for supreme control over the Usumacinta's trade routes. It would
form strategic alliances both with Tikal and Calakmul in this pursuit. This large city is
thought to have housed 10,000 inhabitants at its peak population.
Among Piedras Negras's excellent carvings are several stelae, hieroglyphic panels, and
even a royal hieroglyphic throne. Several of these are on display in Guatemala City's ar-
chaeology museum.
The site gets its Spanish name from the black rocks lining the riverbank here. Among
them is a giant stone near the entrance to the site with several eroded hieroglyphs and a
depiction of two seated figures. From here, you head up the hill to the ruins. Several struc-
tures remain well preserved, among them the Acropolis, containing a large twin-palace
complex, as well as several Mayan saunas used by the elite and scattered throughout the
site. The remains of a giant stairway reaching down to the riverbank can also be found
here.
Famed Russian epigrapher Tatiana Proskouriakoff, who deciphered many of the Mayan
glyphshereandatYaxchilán, isburiedamongtheruins.Proskouriakofffirstpostulated the
idea that many of the events described in Mayan hieroglyphs corresponded to events in a
ruler's life span, a theory initially discarded by Mayanists but subsequently proven correct.
Since 1997, after the departure of the guerrillas formerly occupying Piedras Negras, ex-
cavations have once again been carried out under the leadership of Héctor Escobedo. The
site is among the World Monuments Fund's list of “100 Most