Guatemala City: Archaeologists have uncovered a nearly 3,000-year-old Mayan city deep in the northern jungles of Guatemala, officials announced on May 29, 2025. The discovery in the Peten department’s Maya Biosphere Reserve includes pyramids, monuments, and an unusual canal system.
According to Guatemala’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, the site, Los Abuelos or The Grandparents, lies about 21 kilometers from Uaxactun, a central archaeological area near the Mexican border.
Researchers say the site dates back to the Middle Preclassic period, between 800 and 500 BC, making it one of the oldest and most significant ceremonial centers of the ancient Mayan civilization.
The city spans roughly 16 square kilometers and features sophisticated architectural planning, including pyramids decorated with unique regional iconography.
The city’s name comes from two anthropomorphic sculptures discovered at the site, believed to represent an ancestral couple.
These figures, dating between 500 and 300 BC, may reflect early ancestor worship rituals.
A joint team of Guatemalan and Slovak archaeologists discovered while exploring lesser-known areas of Uaxactun Park. Among the findings was a 33-meter-tall pyramid with murals from the Preclassic era and an intricate canal system believed to be unique among Mayan cities.
Authorities say the findings suggest that Los Abuelos and two nearby ancient sites form an urban triangle that challenges current understandings of ceremonial and political structures in pre-Hispanic Peten.
This breakthrough follows a separate April 2025 discovery of a 1,000-year-old altar from the Teotihuacan culture at Tikal, another primary Mayan site in Peten.
That find hinted at cultural links between the Teotihuacan and Mayan peoples, who lived over 1,300 kilometers apart.
