Aguateca

Aguateca sits on top of a 90 metres (300 ft) tall limestone bluff, a highly defensible position. The steep escarpment overlooks Petexbatun Lagoon and is accessible by boat. An extensive system of defensive walls, over 3 miles (4.8 km) in length, surrounds the city. Its centre consisted of the Palace Group, which was probably a royal residential compound, and the Main Plaza, connected by a causeway along which lay a densely occupied elite residential area.

The Main Chasm is a naturally formed deep fracture of limestone karst running NE-SW through the middle of the site, approximately 850 m long and 10–70 m deep. It has strong evidence of ritual practices, which suggests that chasms, like caves, were places where ancestral and supernatural spirits could be reached.

Aguateca and the nearby city of Dos Pilas were the twin capitals of a powerful dynasty claiming descent from the rulers of Tikal. Around 700 AD, Dos Pilas Rulers 3 and 4 appear to have shifted the focus of the dynasty from Dos Pilas to Aguateca, and in 761 AD the rulers of Dos Pilas appear to have abandoned their city and relocated to Aguateca. Aguateca became a large, densely populated city, with a higher density of structures than most other lowland Maya sites.

During the reign of Tan Te' K'inich the city was invaded and burned, and it was completely abandoned around 830 AD. A 6-metre (20 ft) tall temple was left unfinished, the centre of the city was destroyed by fire, valuables were left scattered in elite residences, and ceramics were left in their original domestic positions, all of which demonstrate the sudden abandonment. It appears that before the final attack the royal family cleaned out the rooms of the palace and left the centre.