Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EL PILAR
Rest Shop
0
metres
100
0
yards
100
Alta
Vista
ZOTZ NA
PLAZA
FAISAN
Aguada
Chert Tool
Production Site
T r a i l
Los Tres Corozos
n
Restrooms
Visitor
Centre
PLAZA
DUENDE
4
Buena
Vista
PLAZA
COPAL
N
Forest
Garden
Aguada
PLAZA
AXCANAN
Royal
Vista
Tzunu'um
House
Entrance, Visitor Centre & Restrooms
Very few of El Pilar's ruins have been altered since their discovery. To avoid
erosion, most remain covered by the forest, creating an atmosphere similar to that
experienced by the first archeologists. Construction here began in the Preclassic
period, around 800 BC, and continued until the Terminal Classic, around 1000
AD, when some structures were completely rebuilt. Such a long period of
occupation was due to numerous springs and creeks - El Pilar is Spanish for “water
basin”. The city's prosperity still shows in the seventy major structures grouped
around 25 plazas, appreciated along six
hiking trails
that criss-cross the five-
thousand-acre reserve. The four most impressive pyramids with ball-courts are
between fouty-five and sixty feet high, grouped around the
Plaza Copal
, from whose
west side a flight of steps leads down to a ninety feet wide causeway running to
Pilar
Poniente
in Guatemala. Some portions of caved-in stonework have been uncovered
and are on display; among them, an underground, corbelled tunnel, a standing
temple and examples of elite architecture.
