The Usumacinta River cuts a meandering path through a mountainous rain forest and forms part of an international border with Mexico on its west bank and Guatemala on its east. In the past, the land around the Usumacinta was criss-crossed by a constantly shifting web of borders as the rulers of ancient Maya cities fought wars and made alliances to expand the size and influence of their kingdoms. But little evidence of where the borders of these kingdoms actually lay had been found, until the recent discovery of a series of stone walls standing three to six feet high, strung out through a four-mile-long stretch of the rain forest. These walls, which divided the kingdoms of Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras, were used to defend Yaxchilan's northern border. The walls provide important clues about the military tactics as well as the causes of the fighting that took place during the tumultuous period 1,300 years ago when both cities were at the peak of their power.
© Sierra del Lacandon Regional Archaeology Project
An archaeological survey in the rain forest on the border between Mexico and Guatemala is revealing a series of stone walls that were used to defend the border between the warring Maya kingdoms of Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras.
An archaeological survey in the rain forest on the border between Mexico and Guatemala is revealing a series of stone walls that were used to defend the border between the warring Maya kingdoms of Yaxchilan and Piedras Negras.
