Quiriguá Archaeological Park
Maya site in the Motagua valley holding the tallest carved stelae and the great zoomorph boulders.
Quiriguá lies on the floodplain of the Motagua river in eastern Guatemala, on a trade route that carried jade and obsidian towards the Caribbean. For most of its history the city was subordinate to Copán, forty miles away, until in 731 the ruler Kʼakʼ Tiliw Chan Yopaat asserted independence and, in 738, captured and beheaded the Copán king. The victory paid for a burst of monument carving that filled the Great Plaza over the following decades.
Seventeen sculpted monuments stand in the plaza, cut from local brown sandstone which splits in long blocks. Stela E, raised in 771, rises about 10.6 metres above ground and is the tallest free-standing carved stone in the Maya world. Alongside them are the zoomorphs, massive boulders worked into turtles, frogs and jaguars wrapped in hieroglyphic text. The 34-hectare park, surrounded by banana plantations, was inscribed by UNESCO in 1981.
Highlights
- Stela E, about 10.6 metres tall, the tallest Maya carved stone
- Zoomorph boulders carved as turtles, frogs and jaguars
- Great Plaza with seventeen monuments dated between 426 and 810
- UNESCO World Heritage site inscribed in 1981
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