Main pyramid
Stone steps under grass.
ElmerGuevara — CC BY-SA 4.0 · ElmerGuevara — CC BY-SA 4.0 · ElmerGuevara — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Last edited by: — CC0 · Noche de la pena — CC BY-SA 3.0
Cihuatán is a major pre-Columbian archaeological site in central El Salvador, once a large urban centre at the southern edge of the Mesoamerican cultural area. It lies in the municipality of Aguilares, about 16 km in a straight line from the town of Suchitoto. The city seems to have been founded in the 8th or 9th century AD on unoccupied land and flourished around AD 950 to 1200. Some 100 to 150 years after its founding, a great fire swept through it, and the survivors abandoned the city. In the 1970s researchers mapped 63 hectares of the site, with more than 900 structures. At its heart stands a grass-covered main pyramid with stone steps, and from the top you look over broad green plazas dotted with trees. The site has two ancient ballcourts with sloping stone walls and stone-paved paths between the platforms. Ceramic figures of central Mexican deities found here point to far-reaching ties. The site is open to the sun, so bring water and a hat and visit in the morning. Do not climb the stone walls, and keep to the marked paths.
Stone steps under grass.
Sloping stone walls.
Views from the pyramid top.
Aguilares, San Salvador Department, El Salvador
A great fire swept through it about a century and a half after its founding, and it was abandoned.
In the morning, as the site is exposed to the sun.