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The Core of the Mayan Area

Property names are listed in the language in which they have been submitted by the State Party.

Guatemala (Latin America and the Caribbean)

Date of Submission: 23/09/2002
Criteria:
Category: Mixed
Submission prepared by:
Ministry of Culture and Sports
Coordinates:
It occupies the central area of the department of Petén, Guatemala. It represents the Nucleus Zone of the Mayan Biosphere Reservation that has the biggest rain forest in the country.
Ref.: 1754

Description

The cities that are in this area were related strongly with Tikal (declared by the UNESCO like World Heritage in 1979). The archaeological evidences demonstrate the ideological and technological bloom reached by the old inhabitants that were leading by big statesmen during almost two thousand years. This area achieved the biggest splendour in the Mayan civilization, thanks to the advances in the writing and the domain in the constructive system of temples and extensive palaces of two or three levels. The sculpted monuments relate the historical events and the list of leaders that manage each one of these cities. It is outstanding the extraordinary beauty of the polychrome ceramic with palatial scenes and hieroglyphic texts.