📷 omerimonge · Pixabay

Where in the world

Guatemala

Quiriguá

Maya · Guatemala

Field notes

civilizations: Maya
types: City
occupied: 200 CE — 900 CE
country: Guatemala

The site

Quiriguá is a Maya city on the lower Motagua River in south-eastern Guatemala, occupied through the Classic Period from around 200 to 900 CE at the crossing of several key trade routes. Long a vassal of nearby Copán, it shares that city's architectural and sculptural styles and turned the tables in 738, when its king defeated and sacrificed Copán's ruler. That victory sparked an explosion of grand construction in the 8th century, all of it halted by about 850.

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