page_title: Nakbe
section_title: Decline of the site
hierarchical_section_title: Nakbe / Decline of the site
caption_attribution_description: Español: Espacio sobre la gran Pirámide de la ciudad maya de Nakbé en Petén, Guatemala.
context_page_description: Nakbe is one of the largest early Maya archaeological sites. Nakbe is located in the Mirador Basin, in the Petén region of Guatemala, approximately 13 kilometers south of the largest Maya city of El Mirador. Excavations at Nakbe suggest that habitation began at the site during the Early Formative period and continued to be a large site until its collapse during the Terminal Formative period. The fall of Nakbe and El Mirador took place at roughly the same time.
context_section_description: While at least some remains have been found from nearly every period of Maya society at Nakbe, the site was never a major center after the beginning of the late Preclassic period. The last construction phases of the largest pyramids at Nakbe date to the beginning of this period.  Late Preclassic artifacts have proved sparse throughout the site of Nakbe, perhaps because the settlement was rapidly eclipsed by the rise of El Mirador. Nakbe remained virtually abandoned for a thousand years, until some late Classic Maya reoccupied the site. These people established small communities in and around the ruins and left some fine examples of Classic ceramics, including the Princeton Vase, but they built no monuments of their own.
caption: Plaza on top of the triadic pyramid at Nakbé
exif: {}