PIEDRAS NEGRAS - Name means "Black Rocks" in Spanish and takes its name from the color of the stones in the river. Piedras Negras is in the most remote part of Guatemala on a point of land bordered on the south and west by Chipas and on the north by Campeche. The site is located on the banks of the Usumacinta river and is up stream from the very remote ruins of Yaxchilan. The ruins at Piedras Negras are as large as the ones at Tikal and is thought to have been a major power in its heyday and possibly allied with Yaxchilán. The site is not very well preserved compared to the neighboring site of Yaxchilan. Researchers feel this is due in part to poor design and the use of wood over stone in many places.

QUIRIGUÁ - The impressive ruins of Quireguá, located near Puerto Barrios, in the valley of the del Motigua River, which flows parallel to the Honduran border. The ruins are located within the del Río Motigua Cerro Azul National Park and are reachable by car from Guatemala City. Driving distance is just over 150 kilometers and the drive can take up to 3 hours. Quireguá is a very large site, however, most of the ruins are untouched and require restoration. The most impressive part of these ruins is the amount of fine detail in the architecture and finely carved stone stelae. There are twelve stelae. The largest of which is monolithic (carved from one block of stone). It is 35 feet high, 5 feet wide and 5 feet thick and weighs over 60 tons. Also the altars of Quireguá are famous, carved in the form of animals representing deities.

Quireguá was a great Maya city during the Classic period. The site's ruling dynasty was in power from 550 to 850 A.D. During that time period Quiriguá controlled trade to the Caribbean coast and the region's highlands and lowlands. It was also during these years that Quireguá had a fierce rivalry with its neighbor, Copán, which it conquered in 738 A.D. During this conquest the rulers of Quiriguá captured Copán's king.

Quirigua's Main Group of buildings is similar to Copán's. Its largest architectural complex has an Acropolis at the south end and a Grand Plaza to the north. These also surround another smaller plaza called the Ceremonial Plaza. The Grand Plaza is one of the largest in the Maya world, and has nine stelae inscribed with dates between 731 and 805 A.D. The Ceremonial Plaza contains four sculptures of personages with animal characteristics, as well as four altars. On all of them there are found depiction's of celestial gods and earth monsters.

RÍO AZUL - Río Azul is hard to get reach and the trip can only be made in the dry season. The archaeological site lies fifty miles northeast of Tikal, almost on the border of Campeche, in the far northeast corner of El Petén. It takes about 5 hours to navigate the jeep trails called roads. The site is nestled on the banks of the Rio Azul and is a testament to the engineering talent of the Maya. Dams were built and canals maintained water levels. The river ultimately flows into the Bay of Chetumal. The site has hundreds of buildings among them a pyramid a 154 feet tall.

The site is definitely pre classic and there is a funeral chamber which exhibits very high quality murals. This chamber has been dated at around 400 A.D. and contains other objects. This site is not for the visitor in a hurry, but should be well worth the trip.

TAMARINDITO - Tamarindito is located in the Petexbatún area of Guatemala on the shore of Lake Petexbatún. Lake Petexbatún is located south of Sayaxché and La Pasión River. This site is only accessible foot, exactly as it was during the Maya civilization. This is considered a very minor site, in a beautiful location.

TIKAL - Tikal can be reached by air out of Flores. There are also buses from Guatemala City to Flores. The least expensive way to get there is to arrive at the Belize - Guatemala border early and either catch a bus or a private collective.

At its peak some 1,500 years ago, Tikal was home to an estimated 100,000 Maya and it was one of the more important urban center of its time. This is evident in the more than 3,000 structures extending over six square miles. The visitor who comes to Tikal, will be dazzled by the architectural immensity of its temples. Its size is intimidating, its setting lush and teeming with wildlife. Standing back and just looking at the immensity of it all can be quite breath taking.

Around the Great Plaza is the Temple of the Giant Jaguar which reaches a height of over 170 feet. This Temple is the tomb of a high priest, buried with hundreds of offerings like vases, jade and so on. The sanctuary for worship at the top of the structure sits on a nine-tiered pyramid. Nearby is The Temple of Masks, which has a flat form and reaches 139 feet. Between these two temples is a courtyard which covers two-and-a-half acres, and its original floor goes back to 150 years before Christ. Two palace complexes can also be found there. The ruins of Tikal include many other buildings, among them a temple that climbs to about 200 feet.

Tikal is one of the Maya ruins that has supplied researchers with abundant information. So much so, in fact, that a large museum has been erected at the site to house ceramics, jade carvings, hardwood carvings and more than 100,000 tools, objects of worship and other decorations. About 200 stelae have been discovered in Tikal. One is marked with the oldest long-count inscription of 292 B.C. Objects from Tikal can also be viewed in Guatemala City.

Tikal is also the refuge for most of the animals in Guatemala, and it is a place where they can be easily seen. Spider and howler monkeys are visible to the visitor who, with a bit of luck, will also be able to see red coatis, raccoons, white-tailed deer, toucans, parrots, macaws, humming birds, and rare falcons such as the orange breast falcon. Reptiles, in particular snakes, are also abundant.

UAXACTUN - Uaxactún means "eight stones" in Mayan. The site gets its name from the fact that Sylvanus G. Morley discovered a stela with a date beginning with the number eight there. The ruins of Uaxactún are located in the Petén area 15 miles north of Tikal. The ruins are accessible only in summer or extremely dry periods, but can also be reached on an unpaved road by jeep from Flores.

This site is important because it was one of the earliest settlements that flourished in the Classic period. It was inhabited, with interruptions, from the middle pre-Classic on through the late Classic. The inscription on one of the stelae found here shows one of the area's oldest Long-Count dates, 328 A.D., and one of the most recent, 889 A.D. It is believed by some that this is where the Maya refined the culture. Uaxactun may be where their writing system was perfected and where major portions of the incredible calendric systems were started. Uaxactún also produced the best quality and most aesthetic surviving polychrome clay vases known to date in the World of the Maya.

The most famous construction in Uaxactún is a building with stairways on all four sides flanked by large stuccoed masks. This structure with others formed part of an astronomical observation complex for the study of equinoxes and solstices indicated by the sun's position above the buildings. Nearly identical structures have been found in the northern city of Acanceh.

YAXHA - Yaxhá means "Green Water" in Mayan and is located 50 miles from Flores, in the jungle beside the island of Topxté. Topxté and Yaxhá are separated by a lake. The waterways near the site were considered to be spiritual to the Maya possibly because they are the color of Jade. The city is comprised of two sectors of rectangular structures, a double acrópolis, laid out in such a manner that they form streets and plazas. This 'city plan' is very unlike other cities built in the Classic period, and combined with the fact that the influence of Teoatihuacán is present in the stelae and the architecture, it is thought that the street design was adopted from that place. The hieroglyphic inscriptions indicate that it was inhabited sometime between the Pre-classic and Post-classic.