Right on the Belize-Guatemala border, located are the ruins of an ancient Maya city, El Pilar. The site was discovered relatively recently in the 1980’s. Excavations uncovered 25 plazas and hundreds of structures still covered by forest vegetation. Not much of the site has been cleared. It takes a little imagination to appreciate El Pilar's greatness. We had the entire site to ourselves; walking around this place gives you a feeling of discovering it.
The first small temples and plazas in El Pilar date back to 800 BC. Over time city expanded reaching its golden time around AD 1000 when total the population is estimated to have exceeded 180,000.
