Tikal and Uaxactún: Among the Mayan Pyramids

I head for the northern Guatemalan town of Flores and two famous Mayan temple complexes deep in the forest

AFTER Quetzaltenango, I returned to Guatemala City and checked out the Miraflores Museum. This is a museum of Mayan Art on a site called Kaminaljuyu, a Mayan settlement that grew into Guatemala City.

Here is a photo of a colourful map I saw in the museum. It shows the departments of Guatemala and some of the Mayan sites in the region.

Map of Mayan sites in the Museo Miraflores (Miraflores Museum), Guatemala City

“The map shows Guatemala City as Kaminaljuyu, and, in the northern, Petén Department west of Belice (Belize), Tikal — the famous Mayan temple complex that I was planning to visit, along with another one close to it but not on that map, called Uaxactún.

An Axehead in the form of a vulture, in the Miraflores Museum

The Maya, who have dwelt for centuries in Guatemala and the states of Mexico that are close to Guatemala, are one of several groups of indigenous peoples in Mexico and Central America, and one of the two indigenous cultures from that region that are the best known to outsiders today. The areas where Mayan languages are widely spoken are shown in yellow on the following map.