El Mirador’s Maya marvels await discovery in the Guatemalan jungle

After a daylong slog through the suffocating Guatemalan jungle, you emerge before a soaring pyramid in the ghostly ruins of El Tintal, the first stop in the forested realm of the Serpent King.

A slight breeze stirs the air, offering a respite from the heat. You climb the pyramid and watch the forest swallow the sun. Earthen mounds entombing cities lost to time lay scattered below. You are heading for El Mirador, the grandest city of them all, only now beginning to reveal its secrets.

You set off before dawn from Flores (about 300 miles north of Guatemala City), driving four hours to Carmelita, a forlorn village on the edge of the rain forest. From there you would go on foot.

El Mirador, or the Lookout, is considered the cradle of Maya civilization, the birthplace of its language, art, mythology and architecture. It was ruled by the dynasty of Reino Kan, or the Serpent King, flourishing between 600 BC and AD 100.

But unlike the ruins of nearby Tikal, which gets up to 350,000 visitors a year, El Mirador is far more isolated. Many of the 3,000 or so who try the trip annually are defeated by fatigue, illness or weather. Anyone attempting the journey should be reasonably fit.

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